Not much in ham radio is perfect. At least not for most of us mere mortals with budgets. Granted – there are the “big guns” that you hear on HF. You know the guys. Of course they live in the mountains (my dream – sorry if it’s not yours…). They have all the height over average terrain you could possibly ask for. And the perfect takeoff angle. Partly because they have that 200 foot tower with the monster set of beams on top of it. Of course the antenna rotates from the BOTTOM of the tower. With that big engine. The one they can afford the gas for… chuckle… And they have that perfect near zero loss coax attached to that $15,000 radio… You get the picture!
Now – for the rest of us… We have a budget. We want the BEST performance out of what we can afford – and fit in to our surroundings. And that is what the PERFECT ham radio antenna compromise is. Not the BEST antenna. Just the best one for our budget and performance requirements.
I have been fortunate enough to have lived in various radio locations over the years. Perhaps the best was back in my “Chicken Band” days (CB radio days – so named because we hams think all these radio operators would really rather be hams but are chicken to try and pass the exam(s) required to get the licence(s). One of the best places was in Iron River, MI where our main home was near the top of a nice hill that gave my CB base station antenna a really nice coverage range. The second was probably our summer home on Sunset Lake near Iron River, MI where the lake was literally maybe 20 feet from our front deck – GREAT ground and a nice large lake for a little help with propagation on 11 meters.
In my current circumstances we have a modest lot in the city of Appleton, Wisconsin. Not huge by any means but it’s nice. Issues include the following:
- Limited lot size
- Plenty of neighbors on all sides of our lot
- Power lines across the back and down one side of the lot
- A neighbor’s metal shed in his back yard close to the lot line
- Metal downspouts and horizontal rain gutters
- A limited budget
- Retirement savings to be accomplished
- No large trees that we own
I am an Extra class license holder and my wife is a general. That means we want to work ALL the frequencies we possibly can. In a perfect world that means a lot of single band antennas. Here are things I considered and my thought process. This won’t work for everyone but I think that until I win the lottery it probably is a good compromise for us.
Limited space brought me to thinking multi-band antennas. Initially I was thinking about a wire antenna – easy to put up and I was surprised by the nice results I saw at a demonstration at the YoYo Net Annual Picnic one summer. One problem was that while we do have two trees that border our lot and have nice high limbs in our lot – one is owned by the city and one is owned by our neighbor. I thought about a mast off of our roof or along the house but we have a goofy overhang that prevents an inexpensive telescoping pole attached to the side of the house…
I thought about a nice modest sized tower and a horizontal beam. But – there is the cost of the tower, cost of concrete, cost of coax, cost of rotator, cost of lightning ground system for the tower, etc… Notice that ever third word is “cost”? sigh…
Next I considered vertical antennas. My my there are quite a few different brands, etc. when you really start to look around. My reading brought me to the idea to avoid lossy traps and matching networks. And it brought me to the idea that I could get a LOT of bands (up to 
in one antenna that only required a ground mount. Next I discovered the wonder of tilt bases. More cost but I am SURE the extra $60 – $80 will pay off over the years.
I decided on the Gap Challenger DX antenna. I have not tried it yet – those results are for a future blog. What I DID do was spend a good amount of time reading about the antenna on not only the company website (probably propaganda I presumed) but also on www.eHam.net (reviews) . I went beyond that. I also reviewed the same sources for other vertical multi-band antennas. I also looked at the power handling capability of various antennas, construction quality and amount of band they would handle at an acceptable SWR reading. DX Engineering has some excellent antennas and they, like GAP are good people to work with as I’ve already learned during this project.
I also looked at what people said was storm survival of various antennas and various mounting methods. To my surprise one person recommended to NOT mount my antenna in concrete – use earth. It would give if all else failed and help prevent snapping the antenna.
I realized that if you buy a multi-band antenna then not EVERY band is going to operate as good as the others do. My favorite bands thus far are 40 meters and 20 meters for DX (mobile). This antenna seems to do well on those bands. It also gets to the 80 meter range. While not GREAT performance there I think it probably will be good enough for our state A.R.E.S. net which is a goal of mine. The bonus is that I probably won’t need a separate 6 meter and 2 meter antenna.
So – I am thinking I have selected a good amount of band coverage and good performance for a nice price. Because it is a vertical it doesn’t take up a lot of space in our yard – a good thing. Since it will be in the back yard by regulation (ONE ground mounted antenna of not more than 60 feet high allowed) the neighbors will probably not complain because it likely will blend in with a pine tree near it.
One last thing – I verified the amount of space needed for ground radials AND the amount of distance from power lines. I am going with antenna height plus 10 feet. I also sat down personally with the city planning department (zoning – community development) and discussed my plans and heights, distances, etc. before I put my order in. I also measure with tape measures and put stakes in the ground where the antenna AND guy lines likely will go before ordering.
So there is ONE method for making a base station antenna choice for a limited lot size and limited budget. I was glad to find out that the antenna just needed to be as far away from the metal building of my neighbors as tall as it is. It has room to spare… YES!!!
More to follow in future posts. Stay radio active!
Jon Kreski – AB9NN – Appleton, Green Bay, Wisconsin area
http://www.hamradioresources.com/
P.S. Please visit my website for daily solar weather and sunspot activity reports, twitter posts and blog information!
Related Blogs For HamRadioResources.com
Related posts
- Ham Radio In Space – High Flying Repeaters (LITERALLY!)
- Antenna Farm Planning
- GREAT Ham Radio Stories!
- Ham Radio Shortwave Radio Listening Memories
- Ham Radio's Carolina Windom Education
- Ham Radio – It Shouldn’t Work!
