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HF antenna

4/18/2008

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My recent poor performance in the HF contests has got me thinking about the HF antenna at home. I live in 1920's semi, converted into two flats. We have the upstairs and half of the garden which is 30ftx20ft. The current antenna is an inverted L, 20ft vertical, 35ft horizontal. Last weekend we built a deck in the garden and I buried 25m square of chicken much under it to act as a earth. I need to bring in some top soil as well before I lay a lawn so will probably put more chicken mesh under that too.

The apex of the house to the back of the garden is about 110 feet, so that is a bit short for an 80m dipole, but this month's antenna column in Radcom suggests that a 90ft doublet is 98% efficient on 80m. Good enough for me. But, does my chicken wire under the antenna make this NVIS? Not really what I want. On the other hand I just stick with my remote auto tuner  at the bottom of the garden along with the standard inverted-L (25ft Vertical 90ft top). I have no idea if the earth mat is that good though. How do I find out?

Either way  I need to get a halyard up to the chimney and I don't have a tall enough ladder. Any ideas how to do this without breaking the neighbors windows?

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