| What I need is
| a omnidirectional horizontaly polarized economical gain 6 m antenna.
| Anybody got ideas?
How about a Turnstile? Even a 6M Turnstile-Reflector should fit inside
your 10 foot envelope, but you may not want/need the overhead propagation.
Glenn KJ7SU
Dave Shrader wrote:
Buy your own house in a neighborhood without CC&Rs!!!!!
Ken Bessler wrote:
I moved from Wichita, KS to Aurora, CO (Denver area) a year ago.
In KS I was in a 1 story apartment but had a very ham friendly
landlord. I had a GAP Titan, a Comet GP-15, a 2m/440 vertical
and 4 el on 6, 13 el on 2 and 22 el on 440. Things were nice.
Then I moved to Denver. I picked the top floor of a 3 story aptartment
building, facing away from the mountains (NE corner apt.). I wrapped
a 153's dipole made from 22 g clear insulated wire around the building
for HF, put a 6m inverted V in the east window and plonked my MFJ
"Super High Gain" 2m/440 mag mount on the in the wall A/C unit, which
was just below the north window. Not a stellar setup but I could hit
any repeater within 25 miles and I was equal to a 20w mobile on HF.
After a year of no noise, no TVI, no damages, no cops, no parties and
paying the rent on the 1st every month I finally asked the landlord if
I could erect antennas on the roof. I explained that I always put up
antennas in such a way as they could later be removed with *very* little
if any evidence that they had been there.
He said OK but no higher than 10 feet above the roof and no holes.
I put up a 10 foot mast on a vent pipe mount, holding up a Van Gorden
134' "All Bander" antenna but left the other antennas stay put.
Duuuuuuuhhhh....
This morning it hits me - I've got a closet full of coax not being used!
1st, I moved (as an experiment) the 2m/440 mag mount from indoors
on the A/C unit to on the roof. I only had to add 4' of coax and on the
edge of the roof is steel flashing - perfect for the mag mount! Now I'm
hitting repeaters 65 miles away with 5w that I couldn't hit with 50
before
and I was recieving at S3-S4 levels. Full scale of course, now.
Then, I got more ideas - I took out my old RS mag mount CB ant (the
best loaded version they ever made - cost $57 - now cut for 10m) and
put it on the roof the same way. It's 18' of stock coax reached just
fine.
Then came the 6 meter antenna - I grabbed a 50' prefab RS RG58 coax
piece and went to the roof with tape, knife, zip ties, rope, etc....
30 minutes later I had secured it as an inverted V to the 10' mast. I had
to re-tune it - it was cut for 50.2 but in the clear it resonated at
53.1!
I had to add like 6" of wire to each leg. Man - I thought all the Denver
area 6m repeaters were offline....NOT! 53.050 is up! Can't wait till
a band opening to see how this 6m ant works now.
So, I pulled my head out of $%^$^% and used the equipment on hand.
I now have antennas for 80-6, 11-10, 6, 2 & 70cm all up in the clear
and that also means no antennas (RF) in the shack. Nice.
I'd put a better coax on the 2m/440 ant but it's only 18.2' long so even
changing from RG58 to LMR400 probably wouldn't make sense. Heck
- it figures out to only 1.3db difference @ 460 mhz. Nah - not worth it I
was planning on spending $200 to put up a Diamond X50 on a 5' mast
fed with 50' of LMR400 but I don't think so now - I just don't think
it would make a difference as I'm hitting all the repeaters within 60
miles
on 5w now. So, that's out.
I do worry about the 68+' of RG58 I'm running to the 6m inverted V.
Loosing 2.2 db on that run @ 52 mhz. Changing to LMR400DB would
cut that to 0.6db, gaining 1.6db. Hmmmmm. Maybe. What I need is
a omnidirectional horizontaly polarized economical gain 6m antenna.
Anybody got ideas? After today's improvements, I want more!
Ken KG0WX
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