Recommendations Lads?

[davecason]

Hi Guys,

I have a question to ask you …… I have a shiny new (to me) tower now sitting in my backyard
pointed mostly up ..... (grin)

It’s an 18 ga tower sort of like a Golden Nugget model but I’m not sure of the brand. It’s in to 60 lbs
of concrete and re-bar going down an extra 3ft and its attached to the house at 22 ft and lastly it’s
going to be guyed at the top with 4 lines tweaked in to two G5RV’s. It’s 3 10 foot sections and the
top piece not quite 10 ft but anyway …. Right now its about 38 feet up to the top so I am going to
have a pole on it but not right away.

So here the rub – what beam and rotor? I’m going to use it with my ICOM IC-745 and right now it’s
only 100 watts. I want to play on mostly 20M but I would like to cover as much as I can and I have
played briefly on 40M and 80M with my current G5RV but my home will be 20M and I have hit 17M
but nothing below that (prob because of the G5RV) I dunno ........

I have a line on a Cushcraft A4S but the thing is 32 feet long on one of the elements! Yikes !

If I get it I would add the kit for 40M but can you guys suggest anything else that will cover 10 – 40M
that doesn’t have 32 foot long elements? (grin) I’m a new ham so type your suggestions slowly!

Cheers’
Dave

 

[robertmac]

Dave, there are capable people on the Prairies forum that can probably help you here [I'm not one of them as not in a position to really get involved with HF]. If you do not get much of a response here, you could request a moderator to move this question to the Amateur Antenna thread. As some people say a wet noddle will get you to make contact on 20 m. But a lot depends on how much and how far you want to go with DX. And will depend on propagation as well. The biggest thing would be your wallet size and your lot size. And I have heard that the most significant part of amateur radio is the antenna. Although a tuner may not be necessary if the antenna itself is tuned to the working band, but if you are looking at multibands, may need a tuner for some bands [you didn't mention if you have a tuner]. Like a lot in amateur radio, a single band antenna is the best, multibands are compromise. But if you are happy with not being a pile up buster, and just want to rag chew, the G5RV tuned properly has served a number of amateurs very well over the years. Even running 200 watts won't help much if the antenna is not tuned properly. This solar cycle 24 has been kind of a bust, but there still may be a year or 2 of good propagation left. I will say do not rush into a lot of antennas until you have a good understanding of best height for towers, antennas, wind loads for rotors, RF and other grounding issues. That is why the G5RV is a good starting point. You can always look at eham.net for antennas HF multiband to see what is out there.

 

[davecason]

thanks

Hi Robert,

Yep, I'm in no hurry to get a new antenna but I do want a decent beam and I will be getting a rotor as well, and yep the budget part and wallet are going to be a factor ..... Plus it's not that I want to be a DX god, just rag chew and talk to guys abroad. That's why I'm quite happy with the IC-745 I have and I'm not going to rush out and buy a 7800 even tho it is really nice.

I do have a tuner ...... its an LDG 200 Pro that they've had for two months now to get repaired. Dunno where it is they haven't answered any of my email yet?

Like I said I can get a good deal on the Cushcraft A4S but its such a big bugger ..... I don't really want to swing a 32 foot element around above the house. (grin) Hell it's just about as big as the house ....

I am going to put up two G5RV's and use the towers guy wires as part of it, or at least try to! So that will give me two options but we'll see if I can make them work.

I just thought I'd start my first post about it here since this is my go to place when I want to ask the experts!

Cheers'
Dave