One more jeep project is a cap hat, I hacked one up in the fall and it really helps. But you have to be stationary to use it, I plan on bringing it along when I go camping to play on SSB.

I got my dipole up using plastic 2 inch conduit and guy wires to get up about 35 feet.

It is working but I am looking into other stuff. I just have not crossed into putting a tower up. I really want to try a 160m loop and then use a tuner to see how it works on the higher bands.

Although until I go to Dayton this year, who knows what I really might down.

 

Not much space down here in suburban California. I have a few trees but they are only 30 feet or so at the top. I tossed a rope up there this AM but couldn't get the antenna much more than 25ft up. My G5RV was close to the same height but, was so noisy i don't even want to bother. The DX-CC becomes a tangled mess quickly when yanking it through the trees so a push pole or mast will be my only option. Next stop HDepot for some pipe or PVC but was trying to get the thing up for free and was concerned PVC wouldn't be strong/stiff enough.

I monitored 2m SSB for a few weeks when I first put the HF rig in the jeep but didn't hear a peep. Called CQ a bunch but all I had was a Vert so I didn't expect much and didn't get much for my "effort". Maybe i'll start monitoring again and put up a 2m loop if i hear more than dead air.

 

PVC will work and you can guy it off as well if too flimsy for your liking. A local HAM friend of mine is making a quad right now with black ABS for the boom and PVC for spreaders.

 

For many, many HAMs, that's all they use for all bands. Fed with 450 ohm ladder line into the tuner. I can load up my 3 wl 160m loop as well for all bands.

Here's a friend of mine's.... http://www.k4qky.com/amateur-radio/a...band-loop.html

 

HDepot recon trip complete. First, 35ft is tall! Second, galvanized steel is heavy and expensive. Third, two inch PVC is gigantic! My stupid trees need to grow taller faster

Really wouldn't be that bad if i lived in the country but down here in suburbia I'll have neighbors clamoring for an HOA. Right now we have an inactive HOA. It's inactive until one of the neighbors (me) does something that pisses everybody else off.

For now i'll stick the DX-CC back in the box and put up a Hamstick and some radials.

 

.....You're not gonna give up that easy are ya...???......lol

I don't think I would have gone with 2" pvc. 1-1/2" should have been sufficient to hang a dipole off of. Did you see the 1-1/2" with the swedged ends so you can put one inside the other? You could guy it off just below the top a little and then again at about about halfway. Some strong, fairly light twine should be ok for that.

What about bracing something off close to the roof line on the gable end of the house? That could give you maybe an extra 16-20' or so....???

 

Unfortunately my brain doesn't let me give up. Sometimes I wish it did! Going to have to call a couple buddies over to figure out the best way to get a mast up. Probably affix it to the eves somehow (2nd story should be fun). Which should add some stability. I like the idea of PVC since it weights nothing compared to steel. I'm debating picking up a tuner. Figure if i rig the antenna on a pulley i could probably tune it manually but it would still be a pita to raise and lower a dozen times.

I did go out and drive some old pipe into the ground and setup a mount for the Hamstick. Unfortunately the wife ran off with the Jeep which had my Antenna tuner and 20m Hamstick in it so the fun stopped. Will cut radials tomorrow and when the Jeep comes back i'll finally have HF in the house again .

 

In my old CB days, I had about a 30' stainless steel pole sitting on the ground and attached to the eves of the gable end of the house. Then a 5/8ths wave Maco vertical attached to it. I worked the world with that thing.

How high is the peak of your roof? I would think you can do somewhat the same thing with a couple sections of pvc but you wouldn't have to have it on the ground because it's so light. If you can get to the peak of the roof you could attach some kind of brace there. Then run the pvc up into it from underneath. Attach the dipole to the top of the pvc then start pulling it up. When you get it to the height you want, then clamp down the brace. If the peak of your house is about 16' then you may only need a couple 10' sections of pvc to get the height you want.

Oh and btw........if you are going to experiment with the Ham Sticks on the ground, you should try and elevate it a bit......say about 3-4'. A HAM friend of mine ran a Butternut vertical this way with a massive elevated radial system under it. It really played well. The key with verticals is, the more of a radial system you have the better they perform.

 

A tuner is a very handy thing to have. This is the tuner I have: http://www.palstar.com/manual_at1500cv.pdf It has now been updated but it really is a fine tuner. I may be thinking about upgrading to a balanced tuner someday, but for now it serves me well. You can get away with cheaper tuners, (MFJ) but as with anything with HAM gear, you get what you pay for.

Palstar makes real fine gear and I recommend them. But you can also do what I did years ago and pick up an old Dentron Super Tuner off of ebay or eham. There are still quite a few around, and I got mine for almost nothing really. Old Dentron tuners are damn near bullet proof. And it's kind of neat to have a piece of vintage gear in the shack. All you really need to do is consider what kind of power you will end up running.

 

I ran out to the Camper and grabbed an old 21ft fiberglass push pole I have. Forgot about it until very late last night. Put the dipole up ~16ft as a test with the ends in the trees.. We have signal! Picking up Washington 5/8 without going through the tuning exercise (Antenna tuner is still in LA with the wife) also picked up a Mobile running barefoot in Portland 5/7. Not going to try and transmit until I find out how bad SWR is and till it's up a bit higher. I'll pickup a couple sections of PVC pipe and mount the push pole to it. Should get me about 25-30ft. The push pole isn't all that thick. I can't use the top portion it's just too thin and bends pretty bad. Otherwise i'd probably make it to 35ft.

So far the DX-CC is a lot quieter than the G5RV was at about the same height.

Re tuner. I'll start watching the swap sites for one.