"James barrett" wrote in message
...

I keep reminding myself about the articles I've read about people
using window screens and rain gutters as antennas. ;-) I'll keep
reading and eventually I will understand Antennas.

Take comfort from the knowledge that sub-optimal antennas, including rain
gutters, are still OK. Until I get a tower up, I am contenting myself with
sub-optimal. Heck, I loaded up an aluminum extension ladder and had a QSO
with Hawaii from San Diego.

This NG had a recent thread on multiband fan dipoles. I made one and it
works fine. I started with a 10m copper pipe dipole a few feet over my
garage roof, coax-fed through a balun. It is parallel to the peak of the
roof.

I added two 20m elements of #16 insulated stranded wire (lamp cord,
actually) and ran them downslope toward opposite corners of the garage roof.
They make about a 45-degree angle with the 10m antenna. Construction
articles encourage separating elements of different bands. The first
measured 20m elements were too long and the SWR dipped at 12-something MHz.
I trimmed them to 14.1 MHz, SWR = 1.1:1 at the radio. The only change to
the 10m performance was a very slight increase in SWR (1.5:1 vs. 1.7:1 per
MFJ-269).

I output only 100 watts and have logged 20m QSO's to Canada, Alaska, Hawaii
and the US East Coast on those hunks of lamp cord laying on my garage roof.
I plan to add some 40m elements and see what happens. ("Let's see what
happens if ... " is one of the very best things about ham radio.)

"Sal"
(KD6VKW)