Mounting SWL antennas close together?

[omniryx]

I'm looking for some advice from the antenna theory experts here. I currently listen to UHF/VHF using an Austin Ferret vertical and to HF using an RF Systems DX-One Professional Mk II. I am completely happy with both (i.e. am not really looking for antenna recommendations). They are currently mounted on separate masts at about 10 meters. My neighbor has offered me mounting space at 25 meters on a tower in his back yard. The constraint is that there is only room enough to mount them essentially side by side so that the vertical elements would be about 6-8 inches apart with the Austin extending up between the lateral elements of the DX-One. My question is this: How much will the performance of either of these antennas be degraded by this arrangement? Both are connected to my receivers by Times Microwave LMF-600, approximately 30 meters in length. I only listen to UHF/VHF to snoop on aircraft and public service but I dx on HF. Thus, my main concern is not to degrade the performance of my DX-One. An alternative would be to mount the DX-One on the tower and leave the Austin on the 10 meter mast but if I can mount them beside each other without losing performance I would obviously prefer to do so. Not that it matters but my receivers are a Uniden BCD996XT for UHF/VHF and a Ten-Tec RX-340 and WinRadio G313e for HF. I'll greatly appreciate any guidance you can offer me.

 

[prcguy]

The DX-One is an E-field antenna and should be mounted above and away from any other antenna, they are very sensitive to their surroundings. Your Austin Ferret will also suffer from a distorted pattern and detuning from being too close to the active whip.

If your existing mast puts the Ferret clear of nearby obstructions and leaves you with a shorter feedline run I would leave it there and maybe move the DX-One to the neighbors tower, as long as there are no transmitting antennas there. You don't need low loss feedline with the DX-One and 30m of cheap RG-8 would be overkill.
prcguy

 

[omniryx]

Mounting antennas...

Thanks for the advice. I will move in the direction you suggest. There are no transmitting antennas on the mast so that should not be a problem. As to the low-loss coax, given my casual approach to UHF/VHF, I don't really need it on either antenna. However, I bought a whole spool for pennies on the dollar some time back, so...