Issue #5 - An Expensive 7-Band Dipole?

Brando - great idea, and yes that should be possible. The desert is so beautiful here . . . I think that, as you say, if the gauge was right, it could be hard to see. Thanks for the tip!

 

Good morning, all, and Merry Christmas Eve, from a strange, but wonderfully cold, Jacksonville, Florida.

Dave, I turned 68 this past week, and don't climb much anymore(when the wife is looking, anyway). We live with our daughter and son-in-law(his call is KJ4OEM). Couple of years ago, I acquired a 40-ft crank-up and tilt-over tower from a guy I know. That's what we run our dual G5RV's from, as well as my old reliable Diamond CP22 for 2M. Maybe you could try the crank & tilt route, to preclude climbing, and it's really simple to drop the tower to keep Mama and the neighbors pacified.
So, again, Merry Christmas to you all. Be well. Be safe. God bless!

73, tonyj.

 

Hey Tony, thanks! Yes, I've often thought about that. Good idea. It still leaves you with an "ugly monstrosity" in your yard (that's "XYL speak") but you can certainly eliminate the need to climb towers. I've got a couple of years on you Tony, and my fear of heights has gotten even worse. I just know that, someday, my love of Ham Radio will get me up on something that will hurt me . . . It just seems to be in the cards. The tilt-over would be the way to go! Thanks for reading, OM. Dave

 

I have said it before here on the zed... Buy your wife jewelry. In doing so, she will not care what you put in your yard... be it an antenna or recreating Tombstone's Boot Hill or anatomically correct statuary.

 

Yes! You know my wife??

 

My wife has never given me any grief over antennas or my tower. But she gets whatever she wants too.

I have the Buckmaster 7 band antenna, have had mine for a few years now and my views of it are like yours. It is not the be all or end all of antennas.
But it just pretty much works, mine is facing north and south and it seems like it works best South, SE, SW but I do pick up stations to the North and NE, NW, just not as good as the southerly directions.
I bought it after trying a couple of other dipole antennas and not being happy with them, before I bought it I did a lot of research and read all the reports on E-Ham, so I took the plunge.
I could not myself, build the quality of this antenna, it is what I would classify as over built. But to that, mine has withstood winds of over 70 mph and ice and snow without a hiccup.

Would it be fit for everybody, probably not. I do not own an amp, I just run my little 100 watts and wire, right now I am still pleased with it.
and I do work DX.

 

Thank you KC9LOO -- glad another Buckmaster owner jumped in. My experience is similar, as you read. Good product -- a compromise antenna, but in my case the compromises worked out to my favor. Please come back again and comment on other articles in T&E, Dave

 

No towers here, either - they are a real hassle to maintain. The OCF is a good choice, and I have a cheap version here, but get better results from an inverted vee maypole on a fiberglass pushup pole. The legs of the antenna act as guy wires for the pole, and the coax runs down through the hollow pole and then underground to the shack. It's XYL approved, too!

 

$375 for a wire antenna seems hard to justify, at first. But thinking about it and looking at the photo, It probably is an install-and-forget antenna that will hold up for years. Dave installed it at the height directed and gave it some test time with WSPR (not utilized as much as it should IMHO), and he's happy with the DX he's getting. You can't beat that.

 

Thanks David -- Yup, I wouldn't give it an A for build quality if it didn't look like it would hold up for many years. As I said in the article, it looked like a military grade product. Thanks for reading! Dave

 

Hey Pat - thanks for reading. I replaced a cut-to-measure 20 and 40 meter dipole with this OCF and it was such a dramatic upgrade. Working with some new antenna designs now, and hope to have another "antenna article" soon. Glad you got the stamp of XYL approval on your latest design (which sounds cool!). Dave

 

You can easily build this antenna for $40. It works great but Buck is overcharging.

 

Hi Steve, thanks for reading. While I agree with you that this is likely too pricey for what it is, I disagree about building one for $40. Yes, you could build an off-center fed dipole for $40, if you used some of the scraps you've got around your shack (as most of us do). But just the wire alone would cost me more than $40. It's over $30 if I bought tens of thousands of feet - and I sure can't do that. The balun is built to military standards, sealed, and made to last for years. I'm sure I could find something that is electrically similar, but once again, not for the $40 total cost range. In short, I agree and disagree with you on this. Yes -- too expensive! But no -- I can't build a Buckmaster for $40! Thanks for posting Steve. Dave

 

My name is Steve.
1 purchased 500 feet of stranded 12G house wiring for $50 at an auction.

2 FT-240-43 ferites for around $20.

Wound my own 4:1 Current Balun.
Whacked a few inches off a 4 inch PVC drain cap that I already have and bought 2 caps ($3?) And a couple of bucks for hardware.

If if you don't build your balun, you can buy one from Balun Designs for less than $100.

I live on less than a thousand bucks a month, and I know how to shop to stretch it.

 

Cool! Nice job on the build. Sorry, I thought you were someone who had earlier posted by the name of Randy. As an aside, my job is to review manufactured products in the ham marketplace, and if I simply build stuff and then review them, it wouldn't be too popular! Dave