Considerations For A New Antenna - Part 1

Our shack was disassembled, packed up in boxes, and out-of-use for several months due to relocation.  We recently hit our tolerance threshold for being off-the-air and decided to take action and reassemble a station.

Nothing like a huge maple to hoist up the center of a fan-dipole.  Unfortunately, our new QTH doesn't have large trees to support our excellent Alpha-Delta antenna.  This has led us to spending some quality time reading our 21st Edition of the ARRL Antenna Book to gather up different ideas.

Our design criteria:

• No tower
• Multi-band (as many as possible)
• Effective for DX'ing including all 50 States
• Durable in a permanent all-weather installation (e.g. rain, wind, snow, ice, ...)

Considerations:

• No trees suitable for hanging an antenna
• Large hill rising to the North and falling to the South
• Tall chimney on house
• 150 feet of back yard

 In part 2 of this article series, we will select and install our first antenna in the new location.