Our local fire station would like us to provide an HF station to be
operated by hams during an emergencies.

Emergencies? You mean like in the case of a disaster such as a tornado in
your community , you might be called upon to provide communications that could
save peoples lives and property? You mean, you may be able to provide a
communications link to other government agencies in your state when all other
ones fail? This is impressive, and this is a great responsibility and you are
to be commended for accepting such a responsibility, and providing such a
service to your fellow citizens.
Now you need to lay the law down to your fellow
citizens/politicians/firefighters. You need an antenna. It requires a
support, such as a 30-40 ft tower, one that will survive whatever disasters
you forsee, such as wind storms, floods, snow/ice storms (no, it will not
survive a direct tornado hit, we all know that). It needs to be vandal-proof,
not climbable by kids, etc. You can tell them it will have 2 simple wires
running off of it and will look like an letter vee upside down. You can tell
them not to waste your time because they are not serious about saving peoples
lives if they expect you to do such Mickey Mouse things as loading up the rain
gutters, disguising wire antennas around the roof of the building, or any
other such foolishness. An antenna that will do what they expect is 2 simple
pieces of wire 65 feet long connected to some coax cable suspended 30-40 feet
in the air. Tell them if they handcuff you into doing anything else they
really weren't serious in the first place. Aesthetics have no place when we
are talking about saving peoples lives. Imagine if you were ever called to
put into action your ham station, and firefighters were standing behind you
looking over your shoulder, and you couldn't be heard because the the friggin
rain gutter wouldn't load up. Give me a break.

Rick K2XT