Once I had it all together, I picked the tree limb where I was going to string it, and using my trusty spinning rod I got a weight over the limb I wanted and then I was able to get the balun connected to paracord and hoisted up into the tree. I then did the same to my ends and I got everything tied off and secured. I leave the paracord over the limbs and tie it off near the ground so it is easy to let down if i need to change something. This antenna is at about 25' above the earth, flat top not sloping or inverted V and my thoughts were that it would work well for DX as well as closer contacts through some NVIS. While not a dedicated NVIS antenna (which I plan to build) it should work ok being fairly low.
Remember, this is a 135' long antenna, some planning is needed to get it where it will work well and not be torn down by limbs swinging in the wind.
I sealed my coax to balun connection with dielectric grease and 3M rubber tape (from DX Engineering) and a top wrap of 3m Super 33 electric tape. I got the 400Max coax from DXE routed to the shack and connected to my tuner. I fired everything up and immediately I knew I had made the right choice to go with this antenna. My SWR was low almost everywhere. I could here tons of stations on about every band and within minutes I was chatting with a guy in Oregon on 20M who said my signal was excellent. It is so much better than my old antenna as to be laughable.
I made 2 more contacts, Kansas and Montana, and went in for supper and a shower.
I came back out after a while, switched to 80M and made some pretty close contacts in Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina (NVIS aspect in action) and a guy in Clayton, right up the road about 10 miles said he heard me loud and clear via email. I am not sure if it was NVIS or ground wave for him but I made a new ham buddy from the email.
I also bought a MFJ power/SWR meter and got it set up so I could tell just what was going on power and reflected power wise. I am doing a smidge over 100W and with the new antenna my SWR is never above 1.3:1 on 20, 40 or 80 so far.
I want to whole heartedly recommend
DX Engineering for your Ham supplies and
Balun Designs for your balun. Top quality and excellent customer service.
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