[Antennas] Effective ways to use lots of land, trees and wire?

Sat Jan 17 22:58:51 EST 2009

My wooded lot has a number of 2 element switchable quads. It started when a 
large oak fell and took down an 85 foot Rohn25 tower with multiple monoband 
yagis. There was another large oak standing dead on a neighbor's property which 
posed the risk of taking the same tower down if I rebuilt it. I wanted to 
get back on the air, so with slingshot, 1 ounce egg weights, and 15 pound 
monofiliment fishing line in hand I pulled two 1/8 inch ropes over a branch that was 
growing horizontally towards NE (towards Europe). The ropes are spaced about 
12 feet apart along the branch. I measured out 2 lengths of #14 black THHN 
(Lowes/HomeDepot). One is 72 feet long (quad 20 meter driven element) and 
one is 74ft 3inches (reflector). I folded the wire in half to mark the center 
(36 feet) with red tape. I also marked the wire at 18 feet from each end. I 
then started pulling the marked center up. When I got it up 18 feet I 
attached mason twine to each of the 18 foot points and pulled them out to the left 
and to the right respectively. I continued to pull the center up and the 
sides out. I did this for both elements. I ended up with two diamonds hanging 
as a two element 20 meter quad, fed at the bottom of the driven element 
diamond with a quarter wave (electrically) piece of 75 ohm coax to match my 50 ohm 
coax to the approximately 100 ohm loop. On the reflector element I simple 
twisted the two wire ends together. It worked well..real well...and started me 
on a journey. I then added a nothing fancy DPDT relay to the non-driven 
element and have this 2 element 20 meter quad switchable NE or SW using the 
non-driven element either as a reflector or director. Similarly, a second 2 element 
20 mtr quad points SE and is switchable to NW . It is located about 100 feet 
from my original NE/SW quad to avoid interaction. On this one the apexes of 
the two wires are attached to the ends of a 10 foot piece of grey plastic 
electrical pipe. I drilled two holes in this plastic pipe 2 feet in from each end 
and tied an 8 foot piece rope between the holes. I tied the center of this 
rope to a single rope that is over a branch and it easily pulled both elements 
up at the same time and keeps the grey pipe horizontal so the apexes are are 
the same height. I put up similar 2 element quads for 15 meters. I have two 
Ameritron RCS-4 remote antenna switches which require no control cables. The 
20 meter quads are connected to one and the 15 meter quads are connected to 
the other. I have a contol cable from the shack to switch the relays on the 
passive element. Okay so what about the two "un-used" SO-239s on each of the 
RCS-4s? On one there is a 66 foot wire (80 meter) vertical pulled up a 
different tree with 50 ground radials and a 160 meter inverted vee pulled up to about 
70 feet. On the other RCS-4 is a 2 element 80 meter quad fixed NE (Europe) 
and a 40 meter loop broadside to SE/NW. So far this mess of wires has survived 
some significant ice and some significant wind with no problem but I know 
I'll be out there for maintenance eventually. No rotars, minimal control 
wiring, no towers/winches/etc., no climbing belts, instant direction switching, 
instant band switching, all connections accessible from the ground, monoband 
performance. 
73,
Richard 
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