I have built mine using various sizes of all-thread  rods for the supports at each corner. Easy to level and change the heights of the shelves should you ever need to change the dimensions. Has worked out pretty  good for me for years and is a pretty modular and adaptable system.

Sometimes just figuring out the general location of the culprit will be enough to scare them off. We had a situation years ago where a non-licensed individual was making up call signs or better yet, bootlegging callsigns on the local repeater as well as kerchunking the thing all day. He really gave himself away when he began changing his call about three different times within a week. Well, once he was found out we narrowed down his location to within a small housing area and we made sure he was well aware of it. Needless to say the individual knew that we knew his whereabouts and he was never heard from again. He disappeared just as mysteriously as he had appeared.

I'm assuming you mean local as within 100 miles or so from your location. I would think from my own experience that Vertical is the better option for local communications. In my area most people on 10 meters are using vertical ground planes and trying to work someone 25 or so miles away (consider variables) by cross polarization might work but its not going to be near as good as if you were both vertical or horizontal. In some cases you might not be able to work at all. As for DX It don't seem near as critical. I've had pretty good luck either way. Just experiment and see what happens but there are differences depending on many things. You just have to experiment and see what works. I agree with the previous post that having more than one type of antenna is a good option.

I have an older Astron SS-30 switching supply that is all but completely quiet. It has served me well for years. It does have a cooling fan that cycles on and off but honestly it is not loud at all. Just enough to barely be noticeable. I dont know about the newest models. One thing I have noticed though is that everybody's ideal of noisy seems to be different. What is quiet to me might be too loud for you. Astron RS-35M is a great linear supply. It's heavy but there will be no noise as it does not have any cooling fans. Neither does my RS-50M. Heavy but quiet and reliable.

I also use CCleaner and it works fine for me.

Im not speaking against dacron rope, in fact, if I had it I would use it but I have always used the quickest and easiest to obtain material for me which is nylon rope and it has never failed me. I have had some of it up for years and it's still going strong.

The G-800SA should come ready to go minus the rotor cable and thrust bearing of course. I guess depending on how the antenna load is distributed on the mast would determine whether you really needed a thrust bearing or not. Probably not with those antennas. I have been using a G-800SA for years and it continues to serve me well today. It has been loaded pretty heavily ever since it has been in operation since the late 90's. It still works like a charm. I have never used a thrust bearing but the load is balanced on the mast. The Rotor will be fine with the weight of those antennas. Those antennas are not heavy. If you are mounting it on a pole you will have to purchase another mast clamp separately.

Common mode has definitely been something that crossed my mind on this project. I have dealt with it on several occasions over the years and it's not a lot of fun. Good thing is though that I have some baluns and some 1:1 choke baluns laying around if needed. It will be a pretty simple setup so it will be easy to adapt for experimentation. I'm not yet sure what kind of issues with interaction I'm going to have regarding the proximity to the tower but that's all about the experiment I guess. I might end up considering the fiberglass pole option a little later on.

Thanks for all the excellent information. Hopefully I can touch a little on everyone's points and questions here. For time being I'm gonna suspend it from as near the top of the tower and as far out as I can. The tower is somewhere around 45ft. It will probably get moved out to a tree branch a little later on just to get it a little more in the open away from everything else. Unfortunately I don't have near the vertical real estate that I had a number of years back but I have plenty of land area so that is not really an issue. I currently have a 1/2 wave 40 meter dipole suspended about 40ft at center running mostly north to south. It should make decent comparison antenna. The vertical wire will be a 1/4 wave design. I have been in the hobby now for about 16 years and I'm getting to the point of trying different things that I just never found the time to tinker with in years past. Antenna building and experimentation has always been one of those areas of amateur radio that has always peaked my interest. Other than modifying a few yagi's and verticals or building some stuff for the higher bands I have not done much antenna experimentation other than standard dipoles or inverted vee's, especially on the lower bands but now I think is a good time. I had considered a delta loop setup like someone mentioned and that might actually happen in the near future. I had experimented with a makeshift 10 meter delta loop some time back and I was actually pretty surprised at the positive results that I had with it. In fact, building a fully functional 10 meter delta loop is probably gonna be one of my next projects. 40 meters has always been one of my favorite bands for a number of years. I'm hearing quiet a bit of DX in the evenings, especially from South America and Europe but unfortunately I'm not really able to get the dipole up any higher to see what difference it would make hence the vertical idea. I really have not had any success trying to work any of the distant stations with my current antenna arrangement (dipole). If all goes well hopefully I can get the vertical up and going in the next day or two and see what it will do. I gotta say, building it your self and seeing it work is half the fun in amateur radio.


Jason, KJ4I

Just got a little curious and thought about throwing together a 40 meter wire vertical antenna this weekend to see how well it would work for 40 meter dx. I have taken somewhat of an interest in that lately, especially later in the evenings. Thought about home brewing a design similar to one that is marketed in the link below. Would be really simple and easy to build out of existing parts laying around in the junk box. Especially being on a tight budget at the moment. I would be interested in hearing ideas or experiences from others on such a design or any other simple easy to build antennas that might be feasible for a 40 meter dx antenna. It don't have to be the most optimal antenna but rather something that is simple and easy to get started with. I'm not necessarily looking for a stellar design to bust pileups or add a whole new dimension to 40 meter dx just something to tinker with and get my feet wet.

Jason, KJ4I

http://www.amateurradiosupplies.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/40m_vertical_monopole_-_manual.pdf

I doubt you will find one unless you find someone selling a used one on ebay or somewhere. Best bet is like WD4CHP suggested and just change the cord unless the microphone it's self is no longer working. I had several mixes of 212's and 242's at one time and seems like those mic's always fell apart or give me trouble.

I would just go HF unless you are just wanting to talk to the locals along your route. 2 meter activity has seriously declined in the last 10-12 years, at least around here in Northern Alabama. As a repeater owner/trustee on and off for the past 12 plus years I have noticed it first hand. My repeater might sit for a week and not hear any activity. The occasional traveler might come through but that's about it. Sometimes a few locals might get a sudden urge and talk on the repeater for a day or two then all goes quiet for the next month. Years ago one could get on 2 meters just about any time of the day and find someone to talk to but that just isn't the case anymore. I probably spend 97% of my radio time on HF these days.

I don't think I would bother to program all repeaters along my path. That could be a daunting task to say the least and no telling how many of those repeaters aren't even on the air. At least on HF there is always someone around.

That wouldn't be a bad idea. Other than it taking a while they did a fine job with the repair. Can't complain really. Beats a previous experience that I had with Yaesu on a warranty product that they sent back to me still broken. At that time I had said that I would not send them anything else to repair but I ended up eating those words and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Everything turned out fine this time. I have dealt with other companies (not all necessarily ham related) that offer expedited service for an additional charge. Sometimes it's worth it and can make a big difference in turnaround time.

It absolutely won't stop it from seeking out a ground point but the theory is that at least something is better than nothing at all. I think the box would be a much safer alternative than a glass jar. A good ground system before the feedline enters the house is a must in any situation. There are much better solutions than this one but in some situations those ideal solutions are much more difficult to work with than in others. Lightning is a powerful and strange thing. I think the best thing to do would be to ground out the terminated ends if possible. No ground system no matter how elaborate can guarantee 100% protection but every little bit helps.

In regards to question # 2. I have been working on this issue lately myself but I WOULDN'T put the feedline in a glass jar for sure. In my opinion that jar could become a grenade during a hit and glass would go everywhere. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it when it exploded. I think some type of system to ground out the loose ends would be best but I do not have that in place yet. I do have everything grounded at the base of the tower well before it enters the house but I still am not happy with loose coax inside. In the meantime I ended up with some heavy plastic electrical enclosures with SO-239's fed through them. Right now I just disconnect my jumpers from there and secure the lid on the box until I can do something better. I guess that plastic box could explode also. Might be a false sense of security but for time being it makes me feel a little better having it secured in an enclosure rather than laying out on the desk.