I work a lot of digital modes, and I've noticed a lot of vertical antennas out there for my fellow digifreaks. I've been wondering how a vertical antenna would work for me, because I do have some local noise, and I've just wanted to give it a try. I had a brand new Unidilla 1:1 balun hanging around from some long-lost hamfest somewhere, so I decide to put it to use making a good solid 20 meter dipole to string up out in the backyard. after some minimal trimming, it worked just like you'd expect a dipole to work. But then I got the jazzy idea to string it up like a vertical. I have this very large tree in the backyard directly behind the shack that's at least 50 feet tall. I already have a rope up there; it's where I have one end of my G5RV attached. so I just hauled one end of the dipole up to the top and tethered the other end to the tree trunk about 20 feet off the ground. Voila! a twenty meter half-wave dipole polarized vertically!
The first thing I noticed is how much better it listens. A lot of the ambient noise I've been putting up with is simply gone. I know it's early days, but either twenty meters opened up a lot or this antenna really has some gain. I was able to feed the coax off the dipole almost horizontally, so that's another problem solved. I'm going to try this for a while, and then think about a fan dipole for 10 and 15 meters up the same tree.
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