HF Antenna

[LadyInBed]

Following on from the Antenna Insulator thread, has anyone considered using the topping lift to hoist an HF Antenna?
What would be the pros and cons?

 

[KellysEye]

I assume you are not sailing when you hoist the aerial. The only issues I can see are keeping it away from the mast and the long distance from the radio to the aerial. If you run it out a coachroof hatch the ATU would need to be near the radio/coachroof hatch. Then dont hoist the aerial right up to the masthead and pull it away from the mast.

 

[Billjratt]

Assume you don't have davits?
My home-made HF Ae goes from the backstay fitting to the outer end of the davit wot has the outboardy end of the rib attached. It is out of the way of the sail, helps take the extra weight of the o/b, and is bottom fed. Mine is permanent, but could be hoisted if an extra block were added up top.

 

[Beadle]

Sounds good to me.

Make sure it is at a decent angle to the mast, use a good atu and a good "earth" connection.

Should be fine.

 

[nimbusgb]

I considered it before deciding to insulate a backstay. I have fitted a solid vang so the topping lift is now superfluous to requirements.

The only problem I see is getting it all taught to keep it from flapping against the main without permanently occupying one of the halyard winches. A jam cleat above the winch would work.

 

[sailor22]

Crossing the Atlantic and working both sides of the pond recently, I ran a continuous 1/4 inch line from my port davit to the burgee halyard block at the top of the mast keeping everything clear of sails, back-stays etc. Taped to the line was a 6AWG 25 foot length (you do not need longer) of wire. It worked brilliantly, that is until it chafed through somewhere about 23W due to a bur on the halyard block, but it was nothing a quick hop up the mast and a five minute job with a file did not cure before rigging a new line.

It would still be ther if I had not taken the mast down for an upgrade job in other areas.

I did consider running the wire inside the aouter sheath of a 10mm braid on braid line with the core removed but time was against us and we did not have time to do that job. I would consider it again as much cheaper than breaking the back-stay and fitting insulators with that inherent potential weakening of the standing rigging (yes,I know that Norseman and Staylock fittings are wonderful, but there is always that nagging doubt!)

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Following on from the Antenna Insulator thread, has anyone considered using the topping lift to hoist an HF Antenna?
What would be the pros and cons?

As I indicated on the insulator thread, I did use that approach on my last boat. The only problem was that the aerial approached metal at both ends and in the middle where there was rigging. This altered its resonant frequencies so unless you wanted the auto ATU to repeatedly spend time finding a tuning set up, you needed to find one place to tie off the base where the aerial was as free as poss from any other metal and then stick to that place every time. Easy enough to use nylon rope top and bottom to keep a sensible distance from mast and toe rail.

I also tried a standard ham radio aerial like these but my use of HF is only for the 80m ham bands. It worked OK but not as well as the wire from the mast.

Maybe I'm careless with money but when I re-rigged this boat, I coughed up for the backstay insulators. More convenient.

 

[VO5]

What about the idea of using a kite, has it ever been tried since WW2 ?

 

[Beadle]

Never used a kite, but I have used a hydrogen balloon.

A friend of mine had a very interesting experience with a balloon