So how did you attach the horizontal elements to the tube?  Did you drill 
through the tube at 2 apposing angles?  Did you flatten the center of the 
two elements and screw them together?  The rest is easy for me to 
understand.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 8:47 PM
Subject: Re: A SHORT VERTICAL FOR THE TOP BAND


> Gerry,
>
> I was flying blind, sort of speak, by the seat of my pants, building this
> vertical and pieced together things I had picked up discussing antennas 
> with
> other hams so don't feel bad about not getting how it was assembled.  I 
> made
> the vertical antenna in two pieces in order to climb up to the roof on my
> tower bolted to the back of the house.  The antenna was bolted to the 
> other
> end of the roof so I could get right to it as needed for fine tuning. 
> Right
> about roof level, the first section stuck up, therefore about a foot or 
> two
> over the peak of the roof.  The second section of antenna was made up of
> three parts.  Two pieces of tubing, one short and one longer, and between
> the two was a coil form with wire wrapped around it.  It was insulated 
> wire
> and I used about three feet of PVC tubing as my coil form.  The longer 
> piece
> of tubing that served as the bottom of the assembly, I think it was 7 feet
> of aluminum tubing, I stuck up inside the bottom of the PVC pipe the wire
> was wound around, or coiled, around.  It was wrapped closely, like a bull
> constrictor snake, because the wire, as I mentioned, was insulated and I 
> was
> only running 100 watts.  So that insured there would be no arking when
> transmitting.  If you run higher levels of power, it is best to use coax,
> the heavier the better, based upon the power, because the voltage is very
> high on the coil when transmitting.  Next, I took another 3 foot length of
> aluminum tubing and stuck it inside the top of the pvc pipe.  The pvc pipe
> was big enough so I could drill into the tubing and the pvc pipe to hold 
> the
> bottom tubing and the top tubing to the pipe or coil of wire.  This is all
> vertical so far.  The signal, therefore, had to pass through the coil 
> before
> getting above the pvc pipe to the top hat, which was the difference 
> between
> 32 and about 130 feet; which is a quarter wave on 160 meters.  About 98 
> feet
> of coil wire in other words.  The horizontal part of the top hat is also
> aluminum tubing whereby I used simple hardware clamps to clamp them in the
> shape of the letter X at the top of everything, that is, at the very tip 
> of
> the tubing.  The reason I made the whole top assembly separate, was so I
> could climb the roof, walk over to the vertical clamped to the end of the
> peak of the roof, and loosen another clamp which held the whole top 
> assembly
> in place.  Once I put the X on top, I didn't have to raise or lower the 
> top
> assembly more than once or twice to get the antenna to resonate where I
> wanted it in the CW portion of 160 meters.  It was fun making it, I 
> learned
> a lot, and from that time on, when I put up a bigger tower that same year
> but in this house we bought that year, I really got into all kinds of 
> wires
> and loops and shunt feeding my tower, and trying phased verticals and wire
> antennas.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Gerry Learry" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 7:53 PM
> Subject: Re: A SHORT VERTICAL FOR THE TOP BAND
>
>
>>I don't understand how it is assembled or connected to the top of the
>> antenna.  I understand that the two elements are in a X pattern and they
>> are
>> both horizontal, but I don't understand the mechanics.
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2012 1:50 PM
>> Subject: Re: A SHORT VERTICAL FOR THE TOP BAND
>>
>>
>>> Gerry,
>>>
>>> What specifically were you asking about as far as the capacity hat is
>>> concerned?
>>>
>>> Phil.
>>> K0NX
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Gerry Learry" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2012 3:39 AM
>>> Subject: Re: A SHORT VERTICAL FOR THE TOP BAND
>>>
>>>
>>>> Can you describe the construction of the top hat a little more?
>>