Long Wire Antennas

When setting up a "Long Wire" antenna for all bands the number one issue is to determine the lowest frequency you intend to use. Then ensure that the length is several times 3/8 or 5/8 wavelengths on this band.

Long Wires are end fed as a rule and it is here that you can make tuning easy.

Use open wire feeder to the end of the long wire and instead of a simple tie back use a 1/4 wave length of wire for each or any band where tuning may be or is calculated to be difficult.

This will result in several 1/4 wave wire lengths being attached to the non long wire side of the feedline. These 1/4 waves can be fanned out or sloped downwards.


The height of the long wire section should in general attempt to be one half wave above ground at the lowest frequency which is height critical (operator decided)

The quarter wave wires will ease the job of tuning the transmitter to the antenna due to the resonance of the quarter wave elements.

I use this type of antenna from 160 thru to 6 meters.

If the long wire section is more than 400 feet then a third support will be necessary so the antenna does not come down every time there is a gale.

A 600 foot wire at 100 feet over ground with quarter wave sections on the other side of the feedline produces good results and excellent gain.

The downside is it can't be rotated

M Higgins

 

If you put out 600' of wire at 100' use a Sloping V-Beam instead of a longwire, open-wire fed with a decent matchbox.

 

Sounds like a decent field day antenna.........

W4KP

 

If you use fence wire you will find it works real well and the cost is very low. Because the antenna is high impedence the resistance of the wire is inconsequential to effeciency of the antenna. Try not to bend the wire as it will rust at that point quicker. You will find it takes a little extra heat to solder to this wire. I have had one of these up for years with excellent results.

 

o o o k! one hunderd feet high, just anybody can put a wire up this high?  sounds fine b-u-u-u-u-t how many has the capability or funds to put one of these babys up?no flames intended, just a consideration or two
sure would like to put a wire or any antenna up that high,but the possibility isn't in the picture for a lot of hams if not a major portion. not complaining but it is a thing to be considered

73 n have a nice day, lots of qsos'
 willie  ag4hy

 

oooooook Willie, I guess you'll just have to figure out how to use a different antenna,Huh? Here's one foya! bury about 30 feet of RG 213 coaxial cable about six inches deep in a straight run away from your house. Unbraid the last nineteen inches of shield braid and bury it straight domn into the ground. Take the nineteen inches if center conducter and stand it straight up out of the ground. Now hook up a realistic pro-2030 scanner to the end in the house. You will no longer be a danger to anyone on the HF bands 73...mike

 

"o o o k! one hunderd feet high, just anybody can put a wire up this high? sounds fine b-u-u-u-u-t how many has the capability or funds to put one of these babys up?"

Actually, depending on where you live it's not a big deal to put up a LW at 100'. I have a 475' long off-center fed zepp up 100' at the middle sag point (110' on each end) and it cost me about $85 to put it up. How?!?!?! Well, I've got really tall trees on property out in the country. No towers but frankly I just don't need 'em and YES I KNOW I'm very lucky!

I use a 45 pound bow and some specially weighted arrows to shoot 8# monofilament over the tree tops, then pull over nylon twine and finally 3/16" Dacron rope. The rope just finds a home wedged in a tree branch near the tree top, runs all the way down to the base of the tree where I tie it off. Gotta replace the rope every three years due to limb friction and I have a kinda 'mechanical fuse' knot in the rope so when the trees sway in the wind too much it'll add 6' to the rope length automatically... and not break the antenna. Sometimes it takes all weekend to get ONE good tree shot at that height, but baby once it's up it's groovy. Yes, it's kinda complicated and yes sometimes it fails but it's cheap and amazingly effective.

This antenna seriously kicks ass as you might imagine.
I have another, 525' LW at 75' pointed about 75degrees off the 100' tall one. On different bands, each antenna has it's good and bad directions... two transmatches and a coaxial A-B switch solves the dilemma of which one works best in about two seconds.

I do sympathize with my treeless brothers, believe me, I was one for many years.

73, Steve N4SL Machias, WA (the sticks) CN88xa

 

A 600 foot long wire at 100 feet? Assuming a property is 600'x600', that is eight acres. And then there is the 100 feet up this thing is mounted, I guess one needs a giant redwood growing on those eight acres. Once, about a year ago, QST ran a story on a 160m parasol that you can build, deep in the story you find out that 240 ground radials of a ridiculous length needed to be buried in the yard. I thought, sure everyone has that much space to do this, the QST guys must be out of touch. Now I know there are more people out there that are out of touch.

 

Some people really do build antennas like that. Me.

Some people really do live on property and have really tall trees. Me.

Some people have a passion for their hobby and spend their entire lives learning and experimenting with antennas and feedlines. Me.

It's really only recently that everyone lives in an antenna restricted environment, hams used to put up wires all over the place and nobody pitched a fit. Now, only the lucky can do that which is gonna hurt ham radio for sure.

I'm one of the lucky and I don't feel 'out of touch' or guilty and I really DO have a 475' LW up 100' and a 525' LW up 75'.

Steve N4SL Machias, WA CN88xa

 

Dear OHM,
           I am working for a company in SHARJAH.
HAM radio activity baned for expatriots.I have agood rx , but receiving heavy noice interference,can you advice a good wire antenna for HF-14 M Band?


VU2CRD
SHARJAH
rajsatellite@yahoo.com  

 

Great idea! In 40 + years in the hobby, I'd not
seen this implementation, with 1/4 wave fed alongside
the long wire. Great idea.

From the land of green mountains and tall pines....
Vermont, where my 160 meter halfwave is a mere
120' up, thanks to my trees.

The downside is....the woods are so bloody dense that
there's no way to get a real LW over them. Just barely manage the 256 feet for 1.8.

For the apartment crowd....I opeated for years using #24 wire, fed with twin-lead. Just about invisible!

Jim/N2EA

 

Used a lw from w8lt for years in the 80's.  It was about 500' long 90' up. It was up since the early 60's and was taken down several years ago when OSU decided to make changes to Ohio Stadium. If we could hear it we could work it.

 

To the query ref 14Mhz wire antennas

You can use a pair of 3/8 or 5/8 wave wires either side of the feed point , instead of a typical 1/4 wave each side as in a simple dipole antenna (2 pole antenna)

That will give you some gain.

You can consider a Wire beam such as a Quad or a wire beam with simple wires fixed to bamboo stlye woods spaced correctly.

You could consider Long Wires ( several odd 1/2 wave lengths .

You could do a vee beam , a loop , a delta loop , a Rhombic or even buy an out of date ARRL antenna manual.

A rotateble dipole will work well and a vertical dipole will also work well , keep the feeder at 180 degrees to the antenna afor 16/17 feet though.

As to the comments on the acerage , don.t b ejealous boys , my 8 acres are worth less that the typical plot in the USA so I get space you get value.

Sure looks like I got it going though ??!!

Mike EIOCL mhiggins@telecomes.com

 

It would be great to have all of the acreage and money we wanted for our antenna farms.
I only have an acre but all three neighbors I have asked permit the use of their trees.
Unfortunately none are over 60 feet. I do recommend asking permission when you go on
their property and diong so without the bow and arrow in hand.

 

don't think that i'm stupid enought to bury a piece of coxial like one moron suggested. "I" am going to use the HF bands, when, and, if "I" want to; got that?
"I" don't care if you are stupid enough to do it, i'm not.....
"I" have one "damn" tree that is about 40 feet high and the property is only 100 yards across, and a tower is not in the, even distant future. as was said some aren't that lucky,as to have tall trees on their property...
most of the ones here are only about 6/7 years old.
so that is out. sooooooooo i'll do what "I" can with what "I" have.
willie AG4HY