I bought me a new 23m long endfed multiband antenna for 10m, 15m, 20m, 40m, 80m from hyendcampany.nl .
It should run along our house and I planned to hang it between two wooden poles. With a height of 6,5m over ground, I was not shure how well it would perform on 80m, but despite its low height, performance on 80m is fine!
How to set up the antenna masts?
I didn’t want to build up large metal structures and also I didn’t want to set large foundations in concrete in the garden. So I had the idea of putting 1.5 metre long tubes in the ground and erecting 8 metre long wooden poles in them, which would then be held securely above ground by brackets and weights for another 1.5 metres.
Wood in the ground is not a good idea, as it can rot and thus easily become unstable.
To prevent this, I first painted the wooden poles four times with weather protection paint. Then I attached 3m long industrial shrink tubing from the base of the poles to the poles to protect them from moisture. I sealed the underside of the masts about 10 times with liquid plastic and Ponal.
Above ground, the masts are stabilised by self-constructed metal brackets. The hot-dip galvanised brackets are placed around the poles and then bolted to the poles at a height of approx. 1.40 m. The bases of the brackets can be weighted down with standard concrete slabs to keep the pole stable even under high wind loads.
I decided to connect the antenna with H-155 coax cable and used “3M Scotch Self Bonding Electrical Tape” to weatherproof the connector and socket. Furtheron I relied on these weatherproof PL-connectors:
