Project - Cobwebb (or cobweb) antenna

A DIY GUIDE - BUILD YOUR OWN COMPACT MULTIBAND HF ANTENNA

Living in a densely populated area antennas are an issue here. Officially I can place one antenna provided it is situated at the back of my house and not higher than 5 meters above the point where the antenna or mast meets the roof line.

The challenge: how to get good results on multiple HF bands from the home QTH with an antenna that is not too much in your face. Following the official rules I could still install an enormous beam (provided the width fits my 9m wide lot). However this would create problems with the XYL, neighbours and probably the official body that has a say on the aesthetics of any change you make at or around your house.

In 2010 I worked mainly using a Ventenna dipole in my attic (inside the house) - not a real DX killer. In 2011 I started using an end fed half wave wire that I set up sloping from my attic window into the garden. This worked a bit better but I need to change the wires for different bands and I keep on getting better results when I work portable with the same end fed wire vertically on a fibreglass mast.

Reading a lot of enthusiastic stories on the Cobwebb antenna (originally by Stephen Webb, hence the weBB) and considering its dimensions I thought it would make a good compromise for my situation.

There are two main configurations for the Cobwebb: the original T-match version as developed by G3TPW and the 1:4 balun version as developed by G3TXQ.
Comparing the two versions it appeared to me that the G3TXQ version was easier to build and tune with no apparent disadvantages.

A few good sources I used:

• Mr Stephen (Cob)Webb
• Detailed PDF describing the Cobwebb version by G3TPW
• G0MTD's experiences building two CobWebbs
• The 4:1 balun version by G3TXQ
• Good step by step description by NH7RO of the 4:1 balun version

Parts
After soaking in all the information I set out to get components that would make the antenna less visible, sturdy enough to keep the antenna in one piece in windy conditions and that would allow me to use the antenna as a portable antenna if I would choose to do so.

The following are my main building blocks (click on the pics for a larger version):

1. Support poles	2. Antenna wire	3. Center plate	4. Metal tube (cut)
			FT-240 toroids, RG-316 coax, SO-239
5. U-bolts	6. Steel angle	7. Balun box	8. Balun parts

1. Support poles - looking at the various fishing poles used by people building this antenna I was not too enthusiastic. The fibreglass tubes used in fishing poles are rather thin. This means you have to either choose a large diameter or accept drooping poles. It turned out however there is a fibreglass producer in the Netherlands that sells tubes through a webshop. I visited them to find the best diameter versus stiffness. It turned out to be a 16mm diameter tube with 2mm thick walls. I bought 4 x 2m + 1x 1m of the stuff.
2. Wire - I chose to get me very thin yet very strong wire from DX-Wire in Germany. Aiming at low visibilty yet flexible wire (for portable use) I selected the UL version of their wire that has an outer diameter of 1,5mm. I was already familiar with DX-Wire through my various end fed wire antennas.
3. Center plate - after looking for some sort of plate - preferably aluminium - I came across the plate shown in the picture. It is a very thin metal plate called a "nailing sheet" over here. The way I was planning to connect the support poles the thickness of the plate is not very relevant. The advantage of this plate is that it holds a lot of holes that can be used to affix parts and that it is very light (good property for a portable antenna).
4. Fixture for the support poles - I found a 50cm (20") metal axis with an inner diameter of 16mm. This suited me nicely as the fibreglass poles were just under 16mm outer diameter. The idea was to fix the metal tubes on the center plate and insert the fibreglass poles into the metal tubes.
5. U-bolts for the metal tubes - not having any u-bolts of a convenient size handy I decided to take a length of M5 (metric) wire and cut and bend that to form U-shapes
6. Steel angle - to be able to attach the center plate to a mast I included this piece of metal. My idea is to use the vertical strip for holding a u-bolt. For a more sturdy (permanent) setup I can extend the strip adding a plate the same width (that allows for more u-bolts) or adding a strip that is wider (that allows larger u-bolts).
7. Junction box - the antenna needs a 1:4 (12.5 : 50) balun. The picture shows the box already prepared for the balun. You will find more info on how to construct it below - after the center plate construction info. I chose a junction box of  110mm x 110m x 60mm (4.3" x 4.3" x 2.4"). If you are looking at different sizes of boxes: the minimum I would recommend is 110mm x 100mm x 50mm. Note that I am constructing a QRO balun and therefore use large toroids.
8. Balun parts - for the QRO balun you additionally need: an SO-239 chassis connector, two toroids (FT-240) and 2.5m (8') of RG-316 coax.

..and a hand full of washers, nuts, bolts and tie wraps.

Construction of the center plate

2. adding u-bolts	3. adding the metal angle (mast support)	4. adding tubes and center bolt

1. I cut the metal axis in three pieces: 2 x 20cm (to hold 2 support poles each) and 1 x 10cm (to hold the support pole for the balun). 
2. I started adding my home made u-bolts through the right holes in the nailing sheet. I had to enlarge the holes slightly (from 4 to 5 mm).
3. I added the metal angle that would go under one of the metal tubes, using two small bolts to keep it in the right position.
4. I added the two larger tubes, drilled a hole through the whole stack and put a bolt through it - this is not really necessary to keep the tubes in place (the u-bolts will do that) but the center bolt marks the end of the insert for each of the four main fibreglass poles.
5. I added the fifth metal tube. To attach that one I used one u-bolt and one bolt through the end of the tube. I chose this configuration as there was not enough room for two u-bolts

Construction of the balun
The G3TXQ version of the Cobwebb requires a 1:4 balun. I mistakenly grabbed a commercial 4:1 balun I had from an abandoned antenna project. Although called a "1:4" balun it was meant to be used to transform a high impedance antenna feed point down to 50 Ohm. Browsing the web I found that 1:4 and 4:1 are frequently used to describe the same balun - not the one you need for this antenna (you need one that is going to transform the low - 12 Ohm - impedance of the antenna up to 50 Ohm). Time to build the Guanella current balun described in detail in G3TXQ's website...

Note that G3TXQ describes a 100w balun. If you are building a QRO version like me you will need different toroids. Luckily NH7RO built one as well and shared the info.

3. RG-316 on toroid	6. stacked chokes	8. tube clamps	10. balun in box

1. Cut four pieces of RG-316 of 540mm (21.25") each and strip the ends
2. Lay two pieces along side each other (use heat shrink tubing or tape to keep the two pieces together) and connect the ends braid to braid and center to center
3. Wind the double RG-316 with 7 turns onto one of the toroids, creating a choke
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 for the remaining two pieces of RG-316 and the remaining toroid
5. Stack the two newly created chokes in such a way that the coax ends of both chokes are aligned and bind the chokes together (using tie wraps)
6. Connect the coax ends in two different ways:
1. On one end connect the two combined coaxes (or 4 coax ends) braid to braid and center to center. This end will be used to connect to the antenna wires ("the antenna end").
2. On the other end connect the braids of one choke to the center of the other choke. The two remaining "free" ends (center and braid) will be used to connect to the SO-239 connector ("the feedline end").
7. Add two short pieces of wire (of equal length) to the antenna end of the balun - so you will be able to bring these connections to the side of the balun box.
8. Prepare the balun box: add the SO-239 connector, two bolts to opposite sides that will hold the antenna wires and any clamp to the bottom of the box that allows you to attach the balun to the fibreglass tube later on (refer to picture 8 for a suggestion).
9. Solder the feed line end of the balun to the SO-239 connector 
10. Attach the two wires of the antenna end of the balun to the bolts in the sides of the balun box (I used cable shoes) 

This concludes the balun construction. I found connecting the tinned center braids the most challenging part as they tend to break off easily.

Putting it all together
Adding the fibreglass poles is very far from rocket science once you have the center plate. So I will refrain from going into detail. I chose to let the antenna wires keep the poles in place - so I did not affix the poles to the metal tubes.This way I should be able to take it apart relatively easily if I want to use this antenna /P. Time will tell if this is sturdy enough to withstand a storm.

The frame for the antenna wires is now ready: a cross of fibreglass of 4m each side and a fifth shorter leg (1m in my case) holding the balun. Now it is time to add the wires.

G3TXQ has a very handy table of wire lengths he needed to get his antenna tuned (including the center to wire fix point length along the fibreglass pole). I repeat it here adding the metric numbers in as well:

Band	Wire length	Wire length (metric)	Centre-to-corner length	Centre-to-corner (metric)
20m	201"	510,5cm	72.25"	183,5cm
17m	157.5"	400cm	56.75"	144cm
15	135"	343cm	48.25"	122,5cm
12m	114"	289,5cm	40.25"	102cm
10m	100.5"	255,5cm	34.75"	88,5cm

Note that you use 2 wires for each band - the numbers represent one leg of the folded dipole. I added a few centimetres when cutting the wires making sure both dipole ends were exactly the same length. It is always easier to tune upwards cutting the wire than it is to tune downwards (never found an easy way to lengthen a wire ;-)

With 10 wires of the right length you can start affixing them to the fibreglass cross, one tube after one tube, one wire after the other (starting at the 10m wire and working outwards kinda makes sense). I used the centre-to-corner lengths specified above and marked them on the fibreglass tubes. That way I knew where to (approx.) wrap the tie-wrap around the wire and tube.

I then added cable shoes to each of the wires at the balun to make for a neat connection of all the wires to the balun:

Balun with all the wires connected

The other end of the wires are the ends of the folded dipoles. They need to stay some space apart. The length of the wires and (therefore) the amount of space in between will change during the tuning process. To keep the ends at an adjustable distance I tried several things but finally went for electrical strip connectors (single pieces) and tie wraps.

Dipole ends connection before and during tuning

For every end of wire I folded over a piece of the wire, slid the connector over it and screwed it tight. That way I created small wire loops on all wire ends that could be connected using long tie wraps. By folding over too much wire at the beginning of the tuning process I knew the wire ends would only get closer to each other during the tuning. That is what you want if a tie wrap is keeping the ends together (as a tie wrap is easily tightened but not so easily loosened).

After the tuning I removed the electrical strip connectors and replaced them by heat shrink tube and a small tie wrap, like so:

Dipole ends connection after tuning

Whatever you select as the material to keep the wire ends apart be careful that the material does not soak up water and influence the SWR of the antenna.

Tuning the antenna
I tuned the antenna today (April 22, 2012) using only the built in SWR meter of my FT-857d (very doable). I started with the 10m band dipole. I read about different results people got when changing the effective wire lengths either by folding over more or less wire or by cutting of wire. On the 10m dipole I cut most of the extra length. On the other bands I left most of the excess wire. I think the latter approach is the best as you can always tune down the antenna if you ever need to.

Note that I found the antenna can be tuned by only folding over more or less wire (no cutting).

The Cobwebb during tuning

From 10m I went outwards to all the other dipoles. I did not find a noticeable change in the resonance of the dipoles I already tuned when tuning the other dipoles.


First live tests
During the tuning process I tried to get some signal reports and did some comparisons to my tried and tested half wave end fed wire I set up vertically. My mast was not sturdy enough to carry the Cobwebb on a height above 6m (18ft). Therefore I focused on 10-12-15m to at least have some relative height.

Conditions were rather poor on the higher bands with deep QSB. Three Italian stations came back to my calling on 15m but either the signals or their fluency in English was just not good enough - anyway there was no opportunity to get different reports on the two antennas. On 17m I heard and was able to work EY7 (5000km) using the Cobwebb. The first DX on this new antenna!

10m came slowly alive but I had to pack up soon so I just compared the signal levels on the Cobwebb and the vertical end fed wire (using a handy antenna switch). The QSB made it difficult but switching quickly back and forth I found that both antennas were most of the time very close (not even 1 S unit apart), sometimes 2-3 S units apart with no clear winner - sometimes the vertical was stronger, sometimes the Cobwebb. There was not enough time to find a pattern (like distance or antenna used by the other side). I will need to do more testing to establish that.

What this first test shows me is that the Cobwebb is a very practical multi-band antenna (my end fed wires need to be changed to cover the 5 bands) with a very acceptable performance. It also shows me that for a quick portable setup the end fed wires set up vertically on a fishing pole are hard to beat.

Cobwebb in action during and after tuning

PAFF activity fighting geomagnetic storm

This morning I had time off while A en K values were rather alarming (54 and 5 respectively). My opportunities to go out for a longer stretch of time /P are limited so even when conditions are predicted to be bad I still have a go.

I took my hexbeam and mobile amp to see if I could work some stations anyway. I went out to PAFF-0060 as it is not too far away and has an open area where I know I can set up the hexbeam.

Hexbeam at the sunny PAFF-0060

My new temporary call sign (PC44FF) is only valid from April 1st, so it was back to PH0NO/P again.

The weather was absolutely brilliant but band conditions were really poor. There was a lot of QSB and absolutely no DX to be found. Through the VKFF FB page I had two VK's checking on their end but not a chance. Europe was not too strong but there were enough chasers around to keep me busy.

C-pole antenna for 40m

Before going home I checked 40m for local skip using my C-Pole antenna. There was quite a pile-up for half an hour. 

All in all I logged 152 calls from 33 DXCC (85 on 20m, 2 on 17m, 65 on 40m) with 6 park-to-park contacts in 2 hours actually behind the radio. R9 was at 5000km the odx of the day. 

Next time I hope my timing is better.

A new addition to my portable antennas: 40m delta loop

Always looking for better antennas to use when portable, I stumbled upon the 40m delta loop. I had read about it a couple of times but mainly from expeditions using the delta loop on higher bands near to salt water. The results were very good but could not be reproduced on "regular ground". So I made a mental note to look into the antenna more later but without high expectations.

Then I came across an article by DJ0IP, who describes the delta loop on 40m as his favourite 40m DX antenna. Now that got my attention. Richard describes the loop and how to build it in detail. He opted for an antenna feed that makes this antenna vertically polarised with a low take off angle. 

The antenna does not need a lot of height to put up and looking at it from a /P operator, it is about as complex (or easy) to set up as an inverted V. So I decided I'd like to have one. I cut some DX wire to the right size for 1 wavelength on 7.1 Mhz. Then I created a 1/4 wavelength stub using 75 ohm RG-59. I never created a stub before but with the help of my miniVNA it was really easy to achieve the correct length.

Ready for transport: 40m delta loop with 1/4wl stub

This morning I had some time to try the antenna out in the field and tweak it to the correct length. So I went out to my favourite antenna testing field.

Delta loop in the field (lines indicate approx wire positions)

I used my 18m SpiderBeam pole and pushed the apex to about 14m. The center was about 4m high. By pulling both corners to the side I was able to create a triangular shape. Note that I attached the top of the loop to the third element of the pole. Attaching it higher I would pull the top too far down.

Checking the SWR I found I cut the loop too short - even though I had made it longer than the minimum length I calculated. So I added a bit of wire in the horizontal leg (as described by DJ0IP). I got the SWR dipping in the right part of the 40m band and still had a bit of time left to test it on the air.

WPX contest meant the band was filled with signals. Most of them were from the EU as I was nearing local lunch time. I did hear ZL4 peaking s7 outside the EU bandplan and I copied TI5 buried in QRM. So it did seem the loop was receiving signals. I tried TI5 (new one on this band) but I just could not copy him well enough through all the EU splatter. I also heard AJ4A in KY and he was able to copy me. Not a new DXCC but KY is the furthest I have worked into the US on 40m. So it seems the loop works both on RX and TX.
It needs a lot more testing to claim that it beats any of my other 40m antennas (inverted V, efhw, c-pole) but it starts out promising.

I did notice the antenna is very sensitive to height above ground (DJ0IP already warned me about that). So I added this feature to be able to tune the antenna quickly when using it again.

Copper wires added to the horizontal leg for easy tuning 

PACC 2017 - amazing results with our field day station

This year I participated for the 4th time in the PACC contest together with the other two members of the highly exclusive YNOMY DX club (3 members). We again used a temporary station with wire antennas on a campsite, knowing that low tech and high spirits are a good combination in this contest.

We had set ourselves a challenge by winning the PACC last year in the multi-one category. It is difficult to be satisfied with anything less than first place now. However we downplayed our expectations by aiming for a top 3 position.

We upgraded our antennas slightly with the use of a higher Spiderbeam pole for the low band antennas. The biggest one is 26m - a nice upgrade from the 18m we used previously for 160 and 80. It is quite a challenge to set up in the field but we managed to get it up in one try. We used the 18m pole for the 40m inverted V. Another upgrade as it was on a 12m high pole in 2016.

We spent the Friday afternoon before the contest weekend setting up the low band antennas in between sheep  - more info and pictures of what the set up looked like including the curious sheep: http://ynomy-dx.blogspot.nl/2017/02/pc55c-pacc-2017-in-pictures.html

In the weeks and days before the contest we made our operating plan using the data from our 2015 and 2016 logs and available online log data of the last few days before the contest to get a hint of the opening times of bands to various directions. This plan was our rough operating guide that was constantly revised using our experiences of how busy each band was and online sources of contact info (clusters, online monitors, online log traffic, etc).

Working in shifts (at least two of us were, our unlucky CW operator had to be on standby for 24h) we kept a steady rate of QSOs going. The high bands were really nothing like last year so the multipliers were more difficult to collect and the Sunday morning was definitely less exciting than last year when there was a local skip with high QSO runs in the last 2 hours. Now it was a far slower pace.

However, all in all we managed to make more contacts than last year - much to our own amazement: 1735 QSOs with 1705 qualifying for points. We also managed to minimise the impact of the poor top bands by scoring more multipliers on the low bands. Up to the last two hours it even looked like we would be able to top our score of 2016 but then the pace slowed down.

We came close but we did not pull that stunt. Last year our pre-evaluation score was 590k (558k after evaluation). This year our pre-evaluation score is 568k.

Considering band conditions we are very pleased with the results. We understand from other participants that generally the contest was perceived as far more challenging than last year. Looking at the preliminary results we can count on a top 3 position.. probably a high top 3 position :)

Ending 2016 on a new PAFF location

There were 2 unactivated areas in PA left. One is on an island and therefore out of my reach. The other one is about 150km driving from my QTH. I decided to go for that one for my last activity in 2016: PAFF-0094 Sneekermeergebied.

The day started out cold - the first challenge was to get the car windows de-iced. While travelling up north the fog became more and more dense.

Fog and icy conditions at PAFF-0094

My plan was to stay in PAFF-0094 for a few hours and then perhaps activate another area on my way back home. 

I took my new 26m pole to test it out in the field for the first time. It turned out I didn't need the support I completed in a rush yesterday, as the gate - visible behind the car - was strong enough the hold the pole. However I ran into a challenge.. with the smaller poles (12m, 18m) I just extend the segments as far as I can. The friction then holds them into place. To secure them I sometimes use some duct tape. This works perfectly for a few hours. 
With the new pole I found that the segments - when they are brand new - are lubricated. This posed two problems: it was impossible to extend them fully as there was no way to put any really force on the segments (my hands would just slip) and the duct tape would not hold. 

PAFF-0094 Sneekermeergebied - probably beautiful views on an average day...

So after spending half an hour on this experiment I took out my tried and trusted 18m pole and set up the end fed half wave wire for 40m. It works on 20m as well, and that is where I started.

20m was very quiet. Tuning around I heard few stations. I logged 14 chasers in 15 minutes but mainly with average to poor signals. So I moved down to 40m. The band was not very busy but I greeted 60 chasers in 45 minutes nonetheless. I went back to check on 20m but it still was not really going strong. So I went back to 40m to log another 74 chasers in just under an hour.

With the bands in this shape and the cold wind that had picked up, I decided I would not drive to a second area today. So I set up my inverted v for 80m to give chasers on short skip a chance. The wind made it a challenge but I got the antenne up - not as high as I would have wanted..

Wind blowing the inverted v down

Using my tuner I was able to give 60m a try on this antenna. I never used that band before on a WWFF activity - in fact I have hardly used that band at all. I logged only 4 chasers but gained a "new band dxcc" as I logged one DL station. Then I went to 80m to log 11 chasers - mostly short skip.

I still had a little bit of time left, so I changed the antenna once again. This time I put up the EFHW for 20m, hoping to catch some NA (there are avid chasers there like Bill W1OW). It was still slow on this band but conditions seemed a bit better than earlier in the day. In the next 40 minutes I copied just three NA stations - including Bill of course -  from MA, NC and MO. The big surprise however was HB9KNA working from YS1. He was beaming long path to Europe - almost 31.000 km. The signal was strong both ways with 58/57 and this contact was an atno for me. Nice!

5 hours after I arrived I broke up the station. With the 26m-pole-experiment and the antenna changes in between I spent 1,5h out in the cold

TL;DR - 219 logged calls from 39 DXCC in about 3,5h - only 8 calls from outside EU - odx YS1 via lp.

Second PA44FF activity (PAFF-0098)

This morning I was able to free up some time to go out for a nice /P activity. I have not been able to visit all the newer parks (added this year), so I chose one of those - PAFF-0098.

It took me about 1.5h to get there. I had studied the area via Google Maps and found an operating spot quickly. An old broken down gate was useful as a support for my pole. 

A vertical antenna reshaped by the wind

It was cold and foggy with a rather strong wind. The antenna withstood the elements and performed as it should.

I started on 40m using a 20m long end fed mostly vertical with the end sloping off the pole (still using the 18m pole, a longer one is in backorder). The band was quite OK. Signals overall not extraordinary but good copies. QRM was light at my location. I greeted 106 chasers in the first hour.

I then went on to 80m for some short skip contacts and 20 minutes later to 20m. I decided to keep the 40m antenna up and tune it slightly. This saved me some time.

In the next half hour I logged almost 40 chasers with average signals and some QSB. The big surprise was VK2ZH. Signals were not strong both ways but I really had not expected to work VK on this mediocre band.
Motivated by this contact I changed antennas to give 17m a try. That was a bit ambitious. There was not a whole lot going on. I went back to 20m just in time to try a QSO with fellow (and far more active) blogger PE4BAS. He was at work and used his lunch break to try to make a contact. It was difficult but we managed to make one on 20m. You can read about the experience from his end here: Blog PE4BAS 

PE4BAS further up north working QRP

I stayed on the band for the last 45 minutes of my activity. With another nice surprise when Paul VK5PAS called me. Again signals were weak both ways but it had been more than 3 years that I last spoke to Paul on the air.

Just before going QRT the band opened towards NA with WWFF veterans VO1SA and W1OW calling in.

All in all I was on the air for about 3 hours on 4 different bands. I logged 231 calls from 35 dxcc.
Strange conditions as I would classify the band as weaker than 2 weeks ago looking at the signals overall but then I did log 2 VKs this time.. go figure.

First PA44FF activity from Deelerwoud (PAFF-0055)

This morning I went out to activate PAFF-0055 Deelerwoud using my temporary callsign PA44FF.

Weather was okay with some drizzle but almost no wind. I arrived at the nature reserve rather early (for me anyway) at 8am UTC. To my surprise there were already quite a few people out in the reserve.

Spiderbeam 18m pole with EFHW for 40m

I started on 40m using a half wave end fed almost completely vertical (20m long on an 18m pole). I brought my Ameritron mobile amp as I was expecting bad conditions - forecast had been rather poor.
It turned out there was an Italian contest going on that completely filled 40m with s9 signals. Luckily I found a spot at the end of the band around 7.198.000 I stayed there for about 40 minutes logging almost 60 chasers, until I could not bear the QRM anymore. 

Running the FT857 with a Heil headset and an Ameritron mobile amp (approx 300w)

Higher bands seemed rather dead so I focused on 20m next. It was really lively on 20m but DX was sparse. The next 2 hours I did not have time to enjoy my sandwiches and just enough to sip my coffee once a while. I logged over 200 calls in under 2 hours on 20m.
DX included 4Z, R9, OD5 and to my surprise JA.

Before packing up I decided to give 40m one more try. It was even worse than earlier in the morning. The FT857's filtering is rather basic but with one big wall of sound all over the band I think there was not much to gain anyway. I gave up trying and went down to 80m. The antenna is not very effective on this band but I did log 4 chasers.

Weather improved during the activity

I went back to 40m, hopped over the band trying to find some gaps at the lower and upper end. Including the short diversion to 80m I lost about 45 minutes. When I found some usable spots in the end I logged another 30 chasers in the last half hour.

In total I was busy for about 4h. Subtracting time for antenna changes and finding spots on 40m I was really QRV for 3h. In that light the 296 calls from 39 DXCC I logged is quite a lot. If it weren't for the contest on 40m, I am sure I would have logged a lot more chasers on that band. The band actually seemed quite good (hence the strong contest signals).

Judging from the 2h continuous stream of chasers on 20m, it seems that the special call does attract some extra attention. The fact that it was Sunday morning might have contributed as well (I am not that often active /P during weekends).

Anders SA2CLU inquired about my set-up today. So I will just add two more pictures. The first one is just to show how effective something small can be. These are the two antennas I used: end fed half wave antennes for 40m (home brew) and 20m (commercial). 

End Fed Half Wave antennas for 40m and 20m

They are only small if you forget about the Spiderbeam pole I am using of course. The 18m pole does attract a lot of attention from passersby.

The 40m antenna is just a bit too long for the 18m pole. So I slope the last bit of the wire away from the pole. It ends up where ever I can attach the transformer. This time just 30cm or so off the ground. In the first picture on this page you can just make out the transformer box in the bushes behind the car. Below a zoomed in picture of this simple set-up.