You have a good antenna there.  Some day  try a tunable coil at the ground 
side.  It will make the band with wider.  I mean replace the Q. coil with a 
tunable one.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Simpson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 3:33 PM
Subject: Antenna Topics


>      I don't know if I'm the person on this list with the smallest yard,
> but I may be. It's a 20 by 24 foot backyard with a shed at the back end 
> and
> power lines running along the back of the house.
>
>      I put up a Butternut HF6V, six-band vertical and did my best with
> laying down a dozen radials. Of course, I had to bend some of them to fit
> the shape of the lot, and I could only fan them out in an arc about 270
> degrees, since I erected the vertical right next to the shed at the back 
> of
> the yard, to avoid any possibility of it coming down on the power line.
>
>      Luckily, I put the radials down in the fall, after I was done cutting
> the grass for the season, and by spring, they were well down in the earth
> and grown over with the new grass.
>
>      Since I mow my yard with a small push mower, I sunk edging stones 
> into
> the ground, leaving their scalloped edges about an inch above ground. 
> These
> run along the two sides of the yard, about two feet from the edges of my
> property. I plant herbs and flowers in the two-foot swath and never have 
> to
> worry about running over them, since the mower wheels hit the edging 
> stones.
> I placed the vertical in this protected area, too, gathered all of the
> radials in a piece of PVC that's shaped like an elbow. The PVC nestles
> nicely in one of the scalloped grooves of an edging stone.
>
>      Although it was very helpful to have a sighted friend to help with 
> all
> of this, I did a lot of the work, myself, and learned a lot from it.
>
>      The vertical has been up for about seven years now, and it works 
> quite
> well on 40 through 10, and does less well on 80. It sure doesn't get me 
> the
> precision of a beam, but for my situation, it's done fine.
>
>
>
> Dave W I 3 Y
>
>
>
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