I need to add 30, 60, 80, and 160 meters to my antenna farm and I am leaning towards the OCF dipole. I already have rotatable antennas that cover 6 through 20 and 40 meters.

The OCF dipole designs I have seen are compromised for multiband operation in an attempt to cover as many bands as possible. To fit my particular situation, I want to design an OCF dipole favoring 160 and 80 meters to be oriented with the wires running NE/SW mounted on a standoff at 94 feet on my tower. I want to design another OCF dipole favoring 60 and 30 meters with the wires running NW/SE mounted on a standoff at 97 feet on my tower.  Both antennas would be in an inverted-v configuration with a 140 degree included angle.

I have been utilizing the search engine to research different spinoffs of the NEC software and I am overwhelmed by all the choices. Please advise me as to which cut down version I should use to evaluate fairly straightforward antennas like the OCF dipole arrays described above. Free software would be great but I also don't mind paying for the software.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I have read several of your antenna articles and will be using your recommendation for feeding my Tennadyne T-10.  Would you please critique my future tower setup for internet remote base?  After much thought, this is my attempt to gain respectable performance from 6 to 160 meters on the tower that I already have in place.  I choose the mounting height for the T-10 and the size and type of the other antennas from a vertical radiation standpoint and because of the fact that this is all I want to risk placing on the Rohn 25 tower.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss252/N1048D/TowerProject.jpg

The tree trimming crew will be at the tower location this Thursday morning to trim limbs that are getting close to the guy wires.  My T-10 should be arriving any day and I ordered an M2 6M5X and Yaesu G-800DXA today for use with an Idiom Press RotorCard DXA for remote control over the internet.  I won't be installing the T-10 until I recieve the new RingRotor that TIC is coming out with specifically for Rohn 25 tower.  As soon as I decide on a transparent to RF guy wire scheme, I want to go ahead and install and retention the guy wires in preparation of mounting the antennas.

I purchased a Kenwood TS-480SAT at Dayton for the internet remote base setup.  When I purchased the TS-480 and T-10, I did not even have a license because my callsign had expired beyond the 2 year grace period.  I passed the Extra exam this past Saturday and I am awaiting my new call.

I want to investigate using insulated rod sections instead of Phillystran.  Can someone provide me with a source for insulated rod?  I want to replace about 900 feet of guy wire with something equivalent in strength to 3/16" EHS.

I would like to load the tower in the following link for operation on 160 meters.  What would the approximate length be of a gamma feed at 70'?

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss252/N1048D/TowerProject.jpg

Since there is 110' of tower above this level with a 6 meter yagi providing some top loading, would the gamma section be over 30' long?

The EHS guys would serve as elevated radials.  Each guy anchor location has 3 ground rods and the base of the tower has 10 ground rods in the shape of a T, each ground rod separated by 16' and tied together with copper straps.  The 50'x75' metal building is also tied into the single-point ground system.

Another idea for 160 meters would be to attach an automatic antenna tuner to a 90' sloping wire running from the center of the 50'x75' metal building to about 6' below the T-10 LPDA and use the metal building as the primary ground plane.

When I read your article, running the coax through the lower boom was the first obvious possibility that came to mind, especially after reading all the threads on Yahoo Groups about what kind of ties to use to secure the coax to (or hang from) the boom.  Tennadyne could actually engineer this into the antenna with a connector (with extra boom reinforcement) or posts (probably no extra reinforcement necessary) near the boom-to-mast position.

Just a thought...would there be any advantage electrically to running coax through both booms, still connecting the appropriate conductor to the front of the antenna, but preserving balance until where the conductors connect to the balun?  Or would the coax act as a tuned stub at some frequency disturbing the match?

Thanks for the replies...

The disadvantages of a LPDA that concern me are the method of feeding the antenna, the lack of lightning protection for my radio equipment due to the elements being insulated from the tower, and the reduction in selectivity due to the broad frequency range.  But, I feel the advantages of a LPDA far outweigh the disadvantages, especially in my case from a convienence standpoint since this station be operated as an internet remote base.

I have a very extensive single point ground system at the base of the tower and at the guy wire anchor points that I installed when I put this tower up initially for a business repeater system.  Would it be worthwhile to have from 5' to 10' of mast sticking above the T-11 to act as a lightning rod?  I already have the 7/8" Heliax that will feed the T-11 grounded to a leg at the base of the tower and I will be using a Polyphaser lightning arrester at the radio end of the feedline.

I have a Tennadyne T-11 on order.  The following article suggests a different feed arrangement than described in the Tennadyne LPDA manual I reviewed.

http://www.w8ji.com/baluns_on_log_perodic_antennas.htm

Any opinions on feeding a Tennadyne LPDA?

I went to the Dayton Hamvention once about 20 years ago.  I was planning on flying my small plane to Dayton tomorrow (Friday) morning and returning home tomorrow night, but there are thunderstorms forecast for Dayton in the morning and for the next couple of days in northeast Arkansas for my return flight.  It is only a 2 hour flight for me and I can probably catch a window to make it to Dayton, but may have to stay a night or two before returning home.

I have several items to purchase for an internet remote base including an HF radio, rotator, LPDA antenna, etc.  Do dealers normally offer substantial discounts on new equipment?  It would be nice to be able to tell my wife that the discounts would help offset the expense of the trip.

Any updates from users of the Glentek RTE and/or RTE/FXO?  I emailed the company today for further information, but have not heard back.

I don't understand how latency is reduced by the use of a RTE for rig control.  I would think that the speed of the internet link would primarily determine latency with other factors being far less significant.

Even if latency of rig control is the same, do the other capabilities of the RTE make it the obvious choice?

Is it true that you do not need a CI-V level controller with the RTE?

Thanks, I had a Maule that would takeoff in 200' under ideal conditions.  The Mooney has a long ground roll, but is over 50 knots faster than the Maule.  Everything in design is a compromise.  Too bad you can't blend the two together.

http://s581.photobucket.com/albums/ss252/N1048D/?action=view&current=MAULE_UP.flv

That is why I was considering poking a hole in the battery vent tube, it would be easy and inexpensive to replace.   But, I am hesitant to do anything that might void the insurance.  I had rather pay the avionics shop a relatively small fee to do the antenna install and execute a 337 Form.

And, yes the skin is all aluminum.

I considered a dipole on the inside of the side windows, but I would like to run the Yaesu FT-2600 at 25 watts and don't want to be exposed to the radiation.

Several years ago I used the ADF wire to operate airplane mobile on 6 and 17 meters in a Piper Archer.  I had an avionics shop install aircraft certified antennas on both my Archer and my Maule for business band VHF with the appropriate entries in the logbooks.

I now own a Mooney Bravo and want to operate on 2 meters, but do not want to drill a hole in the Mooney.  I also do not want to increase drag since I bought the Mooney for speed.

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/ss252/N1048D/N1048DHangar.jpg

Has anyone tried using an antenna splitter/antenna tuner to connect to the aircraft Com 2 antenna?  The Icom IC-ANTSB is used to disconnect the Com 2 antenna from the aircraft radio and connect to an aircraft handheld, but I do not like the 3.5mm plug it uses for connection to the splitter.

I considered running a VHF whip out the battery vent tube on the belly of the plane, but to do this properly would require FAA field approval which is more trouble than I want to go to.

Any ideas for an antenna?

In the Archer and the Maule, I had the avionics shop connect the radios to the audio panel so I could use the key on the yoke and talk/listen through the aircraft headset by selecting Com 3 on the audio panel.  Since I am just playing this time, I plan to simply plug the audio into the music connector that is already connected to the Garmin audio panel and use the radio's microphone for transmit.

I have a Yaesu FT-2600M that I will be using in the Mooney.  I also have a Yaesu VX-6R handheld that I realize I could use from inside the cockpit, but that is not as exciting as having an outside antenna where I can get some range.

From what I have read about the para-sleeve type driven element, 10 meters may actually interact less with the 17 meter element.

A representative at Hy-Gain technical support told me that he had been asked the question before, but could not remember who had asked for me to follow up with.  The manual has the element length settings for 10, 12, 15, and 17 meters.

The only reservation I have at this point is whether I want to chance this antenna mounted at the neck of a 180' Rohn 25 tower, even though the windload is well within the Rohn specs.  Any opinions?  This tower was properly installed strictly following the Rohn guidelines for optimum guy angles, etc.

If I go with the DB-1217, I will also mount either a 2 or 6 meter horizontal yagi above.  I have considered dropping back to a simple 17 meter rotatable dipole at the neck to allow both 2 and 6 meter yagis above.  Any opinions?

Guy wires are one of the reasons I am going to use a Double Bazooka antenna for 40 or 60 meters at the 130' level since the Double Bazooka is less prone to detuning by its environment.  I do expect the radiation pattern to be effected though.