Ham Radio Forum

I have seen the "bird cage" antenna from GAP the thing weighs 40 pounds AND IT WON'T WORK ON 8O.
Well I personally have been a fan of wire dipoles, cut to the bandwidth. When it cools off here in the desert I am going to tackle the multi-band dipole that was in the QST a few years ago.

Although I wonder how well a slopy 80m antenna would make if I used 1/4 inch mesh and conceal it in the gravel in the yard and hang the radiator above it about 30 feet in the air and use the mesh as a reflector
I would need the mesh at least 40 feet long.

The final verdict would be the MA8040 from Cushcraft and assemble a multi-band dipole for 10,15, 20 and 30, at least the white of the mast to the MA8040 would blend into the sky and the hat would be hidden into the tree.

1/4 inch mesh buried below the gravel wouldn't make much of an RF reflector, but it probably would have enough capacitance to ground plane to make the antenna work fairly well.

Paps