Hi Rick, and a belated congrats on the upgrade. Don't be discouraged ,
conditions will improve, your skills will improve, and hopefully so will
your antenna situation.
Is something wrong with the Cushcraft? What bands are you trying to work
without success? Getting it higher should help, just be careful about
those power lines.
You can look at shortened dipoles from Alpha Delta, Hy Power, or others
Look for "limited space dipoles"..
http://www.alphadeltacom.com/
http://www.freewebs.com/hypower/
If you have a tuner, maybe just a simple non-resonant dipole, as long as
possible fed with ladder line through the tuner will cover multiple bands.
Or the mini G5RV which is only 51 Ft. long, but will limit you to 40 and
higher and also require a tuner.
160 meters will be a tough nut for you, but 75/80 should be more doable.
You didn't mention how many supports you have. You will need at least 1
( mast, house, or tree) to hold up the center, Or 2 supports to hold up the
ends. The higher the better, but some guys do ok with very low dipoles.
BTW, where are you located?
73, Steve KW3A
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 11:07 PM
Subject: HF antenna help please.
> Hi list.
> I have vary limited space, and would like to put up a wire antenna.
> I thought you all might have some good ideas for me to try.
> My back yard is about 15 by 26 feet.
> It's actually a little wider than that, but the power line coming in to =
> the house comes across the back yard, I don't want any wire running =
> under or over that.
> Along side the house I have 79 feet from front sidewalk to back fence.
> I figure I could put some kind of antenna there but don't know what kind =
> to get or how to set it up.
> I would like to put up some thing that is pretty much omni directional =
> and covers as many bands as possible since I don't have much room to =
> work with.
> I have the Cushcraft R7 up about 8 feet, but I don't get out vary well =
> on it.
> I have it grounded to the back fence which is chain link.
> I'm thinking about fastening it to one of the poles on the upper porch =
> and grounding it to a ground rod or 3.
> That should get it up around 25 or 30 feet at the bottom of the antenna.
> I can use the R7 for 40 through 10, but would like to get something for =
> 80, and possibly for 160.
> The set up I have now just isn't cutting it.
> So far I've only made 6 contacts below 10 meters since I upgraded to =
> general back in May.
> Thanks in advance for any help, and 73.
>
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