This is a shake down setup to be ready for field day 2011. This year, we have the Ladder-Snap antenna kit and built a 80-10 meter (135 foot long inverted vee) Doublet fed with 600 ohm Ladder Snap tuned feeders. No sooner than we got the antenna put up, I was making contacts on 40 and 20 meters. I was very happily surprised that the auto tuner in my K2 and the Icom 703 would tune this antenna on all bands and both rigs matched on 160 meters thru a LDG 4:1 Balun. Also pictured is a Tokyo Hy Power HC-200 tuner that I thought I would need but didn't as well as another LDG (1:1 current balun) in the black. I have to say the antenna performs as well I could have hoped and we have made SSB QSO's on every band below 15 meters so far. The tuned feeders show no loss in the form of weak receive on any band and we have had several 5-9 plus signal reports on SSB. CW will be even better I think. Time to get the keys out....ready to rock and roll!!

This is the LDG 4:1 Balun. It worked on the first try so I haven't used the 1:1 current balun to see if its needed. I keep both types in inventory so I have options if one balun won't allow a match. When you have lots of wire in the air, most anything will work and this antenna tuned 1:1 SWR on any band. I was rather surprised that the antenna tuned on 160 since its just a 1/4 wave over-all length and it should be a bit reactive. But the 600 ohm line let it tune with the built in tuners just fine.

What? Red wire for an antenna? Yea, its what I had on hand and it was free so what the heck. It actually looks great I think. The feed-point is about 60 feet up in this Walnut tree. I used my sling-shot antenna launcher to sneak a rope thru one of the top branches. You can see the rope coming down on the right side of the picture. This rope is tied to the center support at the top and to a bucket on the ground filled with sand. In the event of a lot of wind, the bucket will allow some movement and keep the rope from breaking. Its basically just a counter weight. I am going to build another one of these antennas as this one went together so easy. It was built and done before I had a chance to think about taking pictures. When I get to the next antenna, maybe I will shoot some video of it going together so you can see what its like to make your own feed-line.

A close-up view of the feedpoint. The Vee is spread about 120 degrees so it should be a good antenna for both local and DX stuff. You can see how easily the black Ladder-Snap spreaders hide in the background of the tree. Green wire would make this antenna virtually invisible while the tree has leaves and nearly as hard to see in the winter months.

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