Here's a roof, what HF antenna would you set up? $500 budget.

[W3RXO]

What's with the aversion to ground radials? It's like the krypton to all the new superhams. Get a 24" by 24" grounding plate, then some 22gua stranded wire. During the winter, lay the wires on TOP of the grass with a lawn staple at the end for tension, and one in the middle to hold it down. Same for your coax. In a wheel chair you can do 6 radials in an hour. A reasonable healthy person could do 10 or more. When summer comes, the grass will grow over the radials and you'll never see them. You'll expend more energy driving a couple 6' copper rods in the ground than doing 10 radials.

Once you have a plate with 10-20 radials, you'll be open to use all kinds of antennas from verticals to slopers.


P.S. With a solid 2' by 2' ground plate, your radials need only be 25' long for 80M. Longer is better, but 25' works great.

I tend to think it is frequently more a matter of logistics, than it is one of time and effort. I tried to put a ground mounted HF6V+12, 17 & 30M, in my postage stamp of a back yard, here in SoCal. Because the ground radials were so short, they had no real effectiveness on the lower bands. So, I tried lawing down some "welded wire" fencing material, and that improved it a bit, but it was still a marginal antenna, for what it's capability would be, If a proper ground radial system were in place. So, I took it out and sold it, because once I got to 40M and below, it was simply a cloud burner, and did not propagate well at all. And, it is amazing, because, while I DO have power lines, that were 15-20 feet, from the top of the HF6V, I did not have any noise issues. But, it still didn't have much, in the way of ears. A PROPER ground radial system, is IMPERATIVE, for good performance, both transmit and receive. With the room, for a proper ground radial system, or with a decent sized metal roof, an HF6V is a good antenna. But you can not marginalize the install, of the ground mounted vertical, without seriously compromising it's performance.

[W2STV]

One last topic to ask you all about regarding my roof mounted vertical antenna. Lightning protection. My plan is to run a heavy ga wire or copper braid from the antenna mount (probably on chimney) down in the straightest path, with no sharp bends to a long ground rod.

I also plan on keeping hte coax hanging outside my op position (upper deck) when I'm not operating. (Cant drill holes in the house)

sound good?

[KA9MOT]

One last topic to ask you all about regarding my roof mounted vertical antenna. Lightning protection. My plan is to run a heavy ga wire or copper braid from the antenna mount (probably on chimney) down in the straightest path, with no sharp bends to a long ground rod.

I also plan on keeping hte coax hanging outside my op position (upper deck) when I'm not operating. (Cant drill holes in the house)

sound good?

You just opened a whole new can of worms. You will consistently get different answers to this question. All will be wrong, and all of them will be correct. Every antenna installation is different.

Put your learning cap on, click the following link and enjoy: ---> http://www.k0bg.com/ . KØBG has a wealth of knowledge and is willing to share. That is what ham radio is all about (my opion)

EDIT: No ground system can protect you from a direct lightning strike. A Elmer of mine (40 year ham) has never grounded his station of antenna and has never had a problem caused by lightning.

[W2STV]

yep Ive read so many conflicting reports on this, from the "ground everything multiple 8 foot rods, 2" copper strap, surge protectors" etc... to the "naah never did it, never had a problem, lighting will just vaporize your antenna anyway, dont bother"


Ill dig into the link.

[KA9MOT]

yep Ive read so many conflicting reports on this, from the "ground everything multiple 8 foot rods, 2" copper strap, surge protectors" etc... to the "naah never did it, never had a problem, lighting will just vaporize your antenna anyway, dont bother"


Ill dig into the link.

I think there is some merit in grounding to protect yourself from static and close lightning strikes. A simple lightning arrestor can help with those issues.

[KA9MOT]

Here are a couple of videos of some random idiot setting up a simple 40 meter horizontal delta loop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG11sJoXqsE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLQdo0N4SVQ

Andy

Great Videos Andy. Inspirational even. I have a bunch (48) of those fiberglass poles and could use them just as you have. Can you give me some more details on your homebrew guy rings? Diameter of the washer for instance? Diameter of the inner hole? I'm not sure if I can get them locally, but may be able to find them online.

[WY5V]

The washers are 3 1/2" OD. The inside hole is 1 1/2. They are 1/8" thick. These are standard size washers. The pins are 1 1/4 EMT. I take a 10' stick and cut it in half.

Andy

[KA9MOT]

Thanks Andy! I got your email too.

[W2STV]

Yeah Andy, nice vids on the delta loop.. I like how you "build up" your mast height with those fibergalss sections. Sadly, not going to work in my location. Maybe on the beach though.. hmmmmmm

[WY5V]

We used it for Field Day. Kevin - KD5KU commented on how it performed on 15. He had a couple of pages of contacts on 15 meters with that 40 meter loop. Its simple to put up and simple to take down. All in all I think we invested no more than about 20 minutes on that antenna Field Day.

One thing to note is that the height above ground does affect the resonant frequency. Raising the antenna lowers the frequency. I had it up about 18 feet instead of the 25 or so feet that it was cut for. So the center frequency moved up from 7150 to about 7336. 2:1 bandwidth was about 125 KHz. I consider the tuner in my TS-570 to be a light weight tuner. But it has no problem cleaning it right up. I think I will make an accessory jumper to tack on about a foot or so when it is operated at the lower height.