Suggestions for antennas on new home on acres

[WA6DN]

I've been a ham off and on since 1958. I've been off the air for most of the last 15 years due to working, raising kids and living with CC&R's.
Now, we just bought a home on 1.5 acres about 3 miles inland from the Pacific. The ham shack is at about 1000 feet elevation with a clear shot to the west and north. There are some low hills to the east and south.
There are no restrictions so I'm looking for suggestions for antennas.
I like the 15 & 40 meter bands, at least to start but don't really want a big tower. And it would be fun to try to make an antenna that's not a wire sloper like the kind I've had to make forever.
I'be been reading a little about the Beverage antenna but with the moderate slope I don't know how it would work.

Also I wanted to add a base station and mobile so I could get my wife to get a novice license. I don't know where to start on this one. I think the San Diego area here has lots of repeaters but don't even know how to get started.

Thanks for any suggestions.
73,
Dennis, WA6DN

[W0BTU]

<< been reading a little about the Beverage antenna but with the moderate slope I don't know how it would work. >>

Hello Dennis,

You can certainly slope Beverages. Take a look at the photos of mine near the bottom of
http://picasaweb.google.com/katie65752/BeverageAntennas#

I've heard of others with a lot more slope that I have here, and they still were good performers.

I've heard it said that Beverages "want to work". In other words, everything doesn't have to be just so for them to work. They can run up and down hills, following the terrain. They don't even have to be in a perfectly straight line. My NE-SW Beverage probably has 15 degrees of variation in direction along its length, since that one mostly uses the available trees.

I don't know how much room you have in the desired directions, but a one-wavelength antenna for 80 or 40 would be a lot of fun. Mine are 580' (one wavelength on 160), but they still work when I'm Dxing the low end of the AM broadcast band.

I suggest the 4th edition of ON4UN's book "Low Band Dxing". (earlier versions have a graphics editing error in the diagram of the 2-wire switchable direction Beverage). Also, w8ji.com has some good info on Beverages.

73 Mike

[WB2WIK]

I hope you understand the Beverage is a *receiving* antenna, not one intended for transmitting.

1.5 acres isn't that much for Beverages.  A typical Beverage is 520' (or so) long and either unidirectional or bidirectional depending upon its termination.  If you wanted four of them aimed in 4 key directions it would take about 6 acres to install them.

Unless you're big on DXing the 160m and 80m bands, Beverages seem like a bad place to start.

However, 1.5 acres is lots of room for all sorts of practical antennas that can work very well.  A tower is a big asset, as it can support not only rotary beams for the higher bands but inverted vees for the lower ones; and a telescoping (crank up) tower, for example, requires no guys, so it can occupy no more yard space than a lawn chair.

With 1.5 acres, I'd install at least one good 60-70' tower and also a full wave 160m loop (about 558' perimeter) which will work well for 160-80-40 meters.  The loop makes a great domestic/rag chew antenna at only about 30' elevation, and starts to become a reasonable "DX" antenna at about 60' elevation.

I'm on a small city (1/4 acre) lot and have a telescoping tower (55'), a roof tower (9' tall, installed at the roof peak), five beams, two wire antennas, and four verticals.  1.5 acres would allow a lot more and not even be obstrusive or highly visible at all.

Congrats on the new place!