Over
the years I have had my share of building home brew antennas from VHF to HF.
In the last few years I have had this drive to be heard on 40 & 80 Meters.
Two years ago I built a full size
40M
relatable dipole that sat at the 30-foot level on my tower, for those two
years it was fix pointed into Europe. This year it’s up on top. With the
40M antenna done and poor rates on 80M during the Nov Sweepstakes I decided
that it was time to do something about that. Over the years I have collected
a bunch of aluminum and in the pile was some 3" boom stock. and some 2"
boom stock. I went to Home depot and picked up a PVC reducer and started putting
things together. I'm not one for documenting things and I guess I should start
writing things down but I can tell you that this antenna went up with little
cost. (I didn't have to buy the aluminum) 1 length of 3" PVC, 1 length
of 4" PVC. and some material to make some bushings. (I use some scrape
#14 house wiring and tape.) is all I that was needed. The length of the antennas
it self ended up being 62 feet. At the feed point is a coil made with #10 solid
wire, seven 3" turns. The antenna tunes the complete 80M band with just
one movement of a clip on the coil. Right now I have 30 radials that are laid
on top of the ground and pinned down. My very first contact was with ZA/K7ZV
with a true 59 + report.