My 80m / 20m dipole (I have been told that it is not a dipole but an inverted V) came down last week. OUCH! My XYL has said that I spend a lot of time on the radio, and I've always said... "No, babe, I don't spend much time on the radio. You just think I do." Well... she's right. With my HF antennas on the ground, I suddenly had a whole bunch of time available with nothin' to do.
I've had a 160m half sloper waiting for install, so it seemed like now was the right time. This is were things get interesting... I needed to get at least 40ft. in the air. One day a few weeks ago I was looking in the ARRL Antenna book and I saw a "wooden a-frame" mast/tower, and I thought: "I can build this, and attach it to the side of my garage/man-cave/radio shack."
Well... my "wires" are up and in the air, but... I don't want ANY of my Ham friends to see it - HI HI. If I were to ever do this project again, I will do several things differently. The first thing I will do is invite someone to take a video of 2 crazy guys wrestling with a 42ft piece of 2x2 lumber with 9 pieces of "long" wire attached to one end... in the dark... in the rain. Had we done this, I could have sold the video and used the proceeds to purchase and install a "proper" tower. But, as they say, hind sight is 20/20. Hey... stop laughing! It may not be pretty, but it works. Yesterday afternoon while I was standing on the roof... in the snow... trying to "finish"... I saw the local police slowly drive by!!! I'm sure he was "taking notes" about the crazy guy.
Looking forward to again talking to y'all on HF sometime soon. But know that if I hear you snickering, I'll know you are thinking about my 42ft wooden antenna "tower".
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