My plan a few days ago was to build a maypole-style antenna supported in the center with inverted vee antennas coming down around it. I was worried about the wires coming down all over the place and I also realized that there must be another cheaper and more easily implemented solution. I have done some reading in the ARRL antenna book and also done some youtubing and now have a new plan. Now my plan is to install a single wire, centre-fed, with balanced window line. As long as I am at least 1/2 wavelength long from end to end, on the lowest frequency I plan to operate on, I can feed it to a simple tuner for multi band use. My tuner of choice will be the QRPguys Multi Z tuner for 10-40M. I like the way this tuner has an LED that dims as a match is obtained eliminating the need for an SWR meter which is a huge benefit if I take this tuner to the field. I have watched a great Youtube video on the building and testing of this tuner and I really like what I see. For $40 US plus shipping I don't think it can be beat.
My existing long wire can be used for an end fed half wave (EFHW) antenna on 80 meters. My first option is to adjust the length and try and use my 9:1 Unun to make it resonant on 80. Failing that I can feed this into a QRPguys EFHW mini-tuner for 80M. I may need to add some length to the existing wire since the recommended length for 80M use is 135'.
If I cannot get it working well enough on 80 with the LDG Unun I will likely order both kits at the same time so I can save on shipping costs.
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