58 foot special.....

[WX2MIG]

Took advantage of a beautiful warm day, and tossed a random wire antenna up.
Going on an article I read by Jack VE3EEC on staying away from 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or full wave lengths from any frequency, or combination's of frequencies you may want to tune up, he gave lengths that he found where good to use. The most I could run from my rig out to the farthest tree was 58 feet, so I measured out a length of #10 twisted copper wire, tossed a line over a good stout Y branch in a maple tree, ran the wire back to the peak of my garage roof, then down the rake, a few feet across the fascia, through a hole in the wall, and to the tuner.

I tried 10 meters, but the best I got was a 3:1, not terribly good, but usable.
12 meters I got something a tad higher, again not terribly good, but usable.
15 meters it flattened out to a little better than a 2:1, and I also made a contact with ZX2B in Brazil on 21.367.0 Mhz, so I know it works there.

Then the real test, I tuned it up on the 75 meter phone band and got between a 2:1 and 3:1, then dialed up 3.814.0 Mhz, and made contact with SR385 from here at WWRF. There was a lot of noise on 75/80 today, and I also discovered that it's not a good idea to recharge the battery to my DeWalt cordless drill while playing radio, that thing adds about 3 "S" units of noise level over and above all the other noise already on there.
Another thing I realized is I have to turn off my other radios while using the random wire, it does put some RF in the shack.....

It's no miracle antenna, but it'll get me a few more places the 20 and 40 meter dipoles could not.....

 

[HiDef]

At 58' length your wire will be radiating most of it's signal near the connection to the tuner while on 80 meters. It will also make use of everything metal in your house as a counterpoise. That antenna would probably work much better on 40.

Symmetrical antenna designs like dipoles usually work much better as the current point can be placed up in the air where it will work better. They can also be much quieter on receive.

Experimenting with this stuff is a blast.

 

[WX2MIG]

At 58' length your wire will be radiating most of it's signal near the connection to the tuner while on 80 meters. It will also make use of everything metal in your house as a counterpoise. That antenna would probably work much better on 40.

Symmetrical antenna designs like dipoles usually work much better as the current point can be placed up in the air where it will work better. They can also be much quieter on receive.

Experimenting with this stuff is a blast.

I agree HiDef, but with the limitations I'm forced to work with, this is about the only way I'm getting on the 80 meter band for now. I'm presently researching all the vertical options, what I may eventually do is go with a multi band vertical on the roof of the garage with a counter poise. It seems the Butternut antennas are rated the best in this area, but they are also very costly, especially when you add in their roof mount kit. So my choices are to either wait and save my money until I can afford a Butternut, or take my chances with a far less costly antenna that may or may not produce workable results.
So for now I play with dipoles and random wires......

 

[HiDef]

Yes, it's all about real estate.

A buttered nuts vertical is going to be a DX antenna on 80. If DX is the goal that is probably your best bet.

If you want to be regional and talk with the other board members on 80 meters, add another 80 or so feet to that wire and get the center up as high as possible.

It might not want to load up depending on your tuner. Adding another length of a dozen feet should bring it back to reality.

No room for all that wire? The end can zig-zag, droop and even be replaced with a loading coil. Even a 100 foot length of warr (4 land speak for wire) will be a dramatic improvement over 58' on 80 if it loads up.

Experimenting and finding out for yourself is exactly what I did so I understand. In the end for close in work you will probably find yourself with a centerfed doublet or a loop for the low bands.

 

[WX2MIG]

I'm thinking of adding one or two coils to artificially lengthen it, but I can actually get to load up on 80 now for regional rag chewing, made contact with SR385 from this forum on it about a week ago.
I just have to shut down all other equipment before transmitting on the wire because of the RF it puts in the shack.....

 

[WX2MIG]

You know the old saying......if it ain't broke, don't fix it.....

Well my random wire wasn't what I'd call broke, and it wasn't the best it could be either. Today I made up a coil to add length......

Plus I added another random length after the coil. Now it runs on a slope up to a tree, terminates to an insulator before touching any branches, and runs down on an angle toward the fence terminating to another PVC pipe insulator just out of human reach.....(I don't care if I cook a squirrel with RF, I just don't want to cook one of my kids).......

I tried to take a couple of photos, but I made this thing so it would camouflage with the trees. Green covered wire, the insulators are painted olive drab, and I used black parachute cord to tie everything up, so no matter what angle I shoot from, you can't really see it in the pictures.....

 

[DoctorMaster]

Why use a random wire, and gamble on tuning the antenna. Why not use resonant lengths for each band, and parallel feed them? I know it's more of a hassle, but you may not need a tuner at all, which would reduce alot of your losses.

 

[DoctorMaster]

Why not hang a vertical wire from a tree, or from a tree to tree, back to the house.. Either of these may help with your space limitations on 80meters. For 10-20 meters though, I wouldn't use the random wire concept at all.

 

[WX2MIG]

All of those things you point out DoctorMaster have been looked at, investigated, researched, measured, and carefully thought about, but due to space restrictions, low height of trees, position and configuration of my shack.....well none of them will work.....

The longest dipole I have room for is 40 meters, and the wife isn't real happy about that one as it is. My best solution is to go with a vertical mounted to my garage roof with a set of ground radials, that would give me the most band coverage without a bunch of wire strung up all across our property, but verticals are not know for outstanding performance below the 17 meter band.

I'm not blessed with a tower, or a large country lot with unlimited space, my options are very limited, so I work with what I got, and so far I've been able to make it work......

 

[HiDef]

Sooooo is it working better for you?

 

[W5LZ]

...and just for 'grins'... better than what?
- 'Doc

 

[WX2MIG]

Sooooo is it working better for you?

It definitely loads up better on 80 and 15, they seem to be the two magic bands with this present arrangement. 10 is still a little high with the SWR's, but the main thing I was looking to get was 80, and I got it......

Doc...
The original configuration of this random wire was a measured length of 58 feet, at that length it was marginal at best on 80 meters, I lengthened it with a coil and some more wire, and now it loads up much better on both 15 and 80 meters....

 

[rfoverlord]

well is it?
I still haven't decided on a vert for myself, only space that will be available wil be the back corner of the lot once my tennadyne T-10 goes up in the air.....unless i decide to install a "flagpole" in the front of the house.