WRXZ797 Posted April 17 Report Posted April 17 Hello everyone. I am wondering if any of you guys could help me. I just got my general ticket in February and I am looking to set up my shack for HF. I am lucky that I have no HOA restrictions to deal with, and a pretty sizeable yard for being in a city, so I look to take advantage of that size to put up a wire that can operate on multiple bands. I have been considering an endfed half wave about 141' in length, or an ocf dipole roughly 84' and 30' from the feedpoint. My issue is no sizeable trees anywhere near enough. The wife is not keen on a mast in the middle of the yard where I could put in proper guying. One solution I have considered is using the house to secure a mast. I would sink the bottom section a few feet into concrete. Then secure it to the exterior of the house using wall mounts. The peak of the roof is roughly 22' above the ground so I would just get it to about 30' and a fix the balun right on the mast and run the wire plus mount my lightweight 2m/70cm antenna on the top. My question is would this be secure enough? 73 KF0NVZ Quote
SteveShannon Posted April 17 Report Posted April 17 6 minutes ago, WRXZ797 said: Hello everyone. I am wondering if any of you guys could help me. I just got my general ticket in February and I am looking to set up my shack for HF. I am lucky that I have no HOA restrictions to deal with, and a pretty sizeable yard for being in a city, so I look to take advantage of that size to put up a wire that can operate on multiple bands. I have been considering an endfed half wave about 141' in length, or an ocf dipole roughly 84' and 30' from the feedpoint. My issue is no sizeable trees anywhere near enough. The wife is not keen on a mast in the middle of the yard where I could put in proper guying. One solution I have considered is using the house to secure a mast. I would sink the bottom section a few feet into concrete. Then secure it to the exterior of the house using wall mounts. The peak of the roof is roughly 22' above the ground so I would just get it to about 30' and a fix the balun right on the mast and run the wire plus mount my lightweight 2m/70cm antenna on the top. My question is would this be secure enough? 73 KF0NVZ The mounting method is definitely secure enough, but I didn’t see what you’re using for a mast. Is it rigid enough? For reference I use a telescoping fiberglass mast (Spiderbeam) in a cast-off patio umbrella stand to hold the center of my 40-10 EFHW. Quote
WRXZ797 Posted April 17 Author Report Posted April 17 I have been thinking like a rohn steel telescoping mast but anything that would be sturdy enough and hold cost down would be ideal. We are know for our wind where I live so I want it to be pretty sturdy but its not gonna be holding up very much weight. Quote
SteveShannon Posted April 17 Report Posted April 17 6 minutes ago, WRXZ797 said: I have been thinking like a rohn steel telescoping mast but anything that would be sturdy enough and hold cost down would be ideal. We are know for our wind where I live so I want it to be pretty sturdy but its not gonna be holding up very much weight. The Rohn masts seem fine. I have a friend who uses one for the center of his dipole. My fiberglass pole isn’t guyed. As long as it’s in the center of the EFHW it hasn’t seemed like it needs guys. Quote
tweiss3 Posted April 17 Report Posted April 17 I have a MyAntennas EFHW for 10 through 80. I have mine between two trees, but the feed side is only 25' up, and the far side is up about 40. It's no where near as tall as recommended, but it's logged nearly 5000 contacts. You don't have to have the far tree right at 160', it could be 200+, just use paracord to finish the bridging. SteveShannon 1 Quote
WRXZ797 Posted April 18 Author Report Posted April 18 The responses make me feel a lot better about the situation. Thanks so much. I have been looking at the MyAntennas 80-10, and the palomar 80-10 ocf dipole. How does the MyAntennas work for you on the phone portion of 80? The closest tree of signifigance is in the neighbors yard and all of their trees have significant sway during storms. I live in the Dakotas where wind is a very real issue the whole year. On the far end Im hoping to slope it down to maybe 20 feet using fence top rail secured to my shed if I go with the palomar, or sink a pipe down in some concrete way in the back yard and then secure it to that for the EFHW. Quote
tweiss3 Posted April 18 Report Posted April 18 With the EFHW, you can pick to either cover the digital/cw portion of 80, or the phone portion. I chose digital. The 7510 is phone portion of 80, and the 8010 is digital portion of 80. I've used it on phone, SWR is something like 5:1, was only used for quick checkins to an 80 meter net. SteveShannon 1 Quote
SOBX Posted April 21 Report Posted April 21 I used two pieces of 10-foot iron pipe joined with a threaded coupler in the middle. But I didn't cement it directly in the concrete. I cemented two pieces of pipe iron and used two bolts. That way if I need to do maint. on the antenna or for hurricanes, I can take the top bolt out and lay the mast down. So far it's been up 3 years with no issues. On the top is a fan dipole I made, on a piece of PVC pipe at 26 feet. SteveShannon and WRYZ926 2 Quote
WRYZ926 Posted April 21 Report Posted April 21 I currently have a 10m inverted V dipole and a MFJ multi band vertical antenna up. I have a 6 band cobweb that I am getting ready to install. Both antennas have done well for me. I am just waiting for my 49:1 balun to arrive so I can make an EFHW antenna for 40m and 80m. I have several mature maple trees in my yard to put the EFHW up in. Another guy in town has a crossbow setup for getting wires up into trees that I will try to use. SteveShannon 1 Quote
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