On 12/9/2015 2:34 PM, Cqtestk4xs--- via Topband wrote:
On 160 I'm leaning toward a wire vertical suspended from a rope coming from the tower which would make the antenna about 65 or 70 feet tall and to compensate for that I would make it a T-top.
Normally, a T-top is great, but in your case it will royally screw up the patterns of the higher frequency Yagi's. What were you thinking?? I think this will work, but you need to model it: Build a cage around the tower suspended from the non rotating part of the guy rings. The cage should be electrically insulated from the lower guy ring. For the top ring, there are two possibilities: Case 1: if the ring is inherently electrically conductive between rotor and stator, use it to electrically connect the cage to the tower at the upper guy ring. Case 2: If the ring is inherently electrically insulating, just let the top of the cage float. In either case the bottom of the cage is insulated from ground and is what you drive against your radials. Case 1 is the classic skirt method of shunt feeding a grounded tower. Case 2 uses the cage as the vertical and I think it will work in spite of the tower and antennas above it, but you need to model. In case 2, there may be a way to get an electrical connection across the guy ring by hanging some wires loosely from a few feet above it on the tower, such that the wires have enough slack to allow the tower to rotate. Alternately, there may be a way to let the wires hang down in a U shape. Comments? Rick N6RK _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
