LW-20 long wire query

Hi looking at putting up a LW 20 long wire, my garden is approx 30 plus feet, when it's attached just under the gutter,when it gets to the bottom of the garden attached to a pole does it need to go through a dogbone or can it just go round the pole before it comes back up the garden, is height very important can only get it to about 18 ft max..

Has to be insulated from the pole so yes to the dog-bone or something.

On all three points, house,,,, pole back to house

If it's insulated wire, it doesn't so much need insulating as not being interfered with if a metal pole or other fixings, so an insulator used to give some separation from the pole or other structure is a good idea.  It's also good to ensure the wire can move, by sliding through the insulators or similar.

Only just spotted the bit about height.
I run a 10 meter long wire soon to be a 20 meter down my garden.
It starts off around 9/10ft and the other end is around 18/19ft and i have bungalows all round me and one mega big house behind.
It works very well surprised me how well it works that's why i want to change to the 20 meter length.
Not sure how well it will work on the 11m band i use a vertical for that when it's running.

Alan Pilot wrote:

Only just spotted the bit about height.
I run a 10 meter long wire soon to be a 20 meter down my garden.
It starts off around 9/10ft and the other end is around 18/19ft and i have bungalows all round me and one mega big house behind.
It works very well surprised me how well it works that's why i want to change to the 20 meter length.
Not sure how well it will work on the 11m band i use a vertical for that when it's running.

A wire low to the ground (relevant to wavelength) tends to send the signal more up than out....great for NVIS on the lower bands, but pretty crap for 11m where 27MHz is way above the critical frequency and MUF, and hence won’t bounce back.

It’s also going to be pretty hopeless for ground wave being the wrong polarisation, and a really band radiation pattern.

Why I am thinking of this antenna, doing the foundation very soon, do I buy a HF set, or just stick with a crt6900

Last week i worked many country's including the UK and USA.
Yorkshire.(40m)
West Sussex(40m)
And North and South America.(20m)
They all gave a good report and surprised at my long wire and 10w output.
11m band was silent even on the vertical where i am anyway.

26ct954 wrote:

Why I am thinking of this antenna, doing the foundation very soon, do I buy a HF set, or just stick with a crt6900

Do you want to stick to 1/2 bands where there's very little activity for the next few years due to the solar cycle or do you want to be able to use bands (20m/40m) where there's almost 100% guaranteed DX every single day?

Staying with an 11m set is the HF equivalent of just having a dual band handheld. It becomes frustrating and disappointing  quite quickly.

If you're doing your foundation studies, ditch the 6900 which covers only the 10 meter amateur band and buy a proper HF set. If you want to keep the 6900 and work the 10 meter band forget the LW-20 it's the wrong antenna for the job. Good luck with your studies.

73's Gary.

What antenna do you think is best for HF garden limited on length 30 plus feet at most

26ct954 wrote:

What antenna do you think is best for HF garden limited on length 30 plus feet at most

Depends what you mean by HF....there’s no one perfect antenna for everything, or we’d all been using it.

It really depends on what you want to do, as well as space and budget, obviously.

Traditionally, a dipole is a good all rounder, especially if you can get it high enough.  A vertical is good for DX due to take-off angle, and easier to fit than a dipole or doublet.  Then you could go a long wire, or EFHW (which is what I run, along with a vertical) which gives flexibility with install, as you can do vertical, inverted L, sloper, etc. to make it fit....but the pattern won’t be ideal on the harmonics above it’s fundamental frequency.

So have a think about whether your main interests are local/regional ragchew on 80m, or more DX on 20 & 40m, as the “best” antenna for each will be different....