Run it up the flag pole

Chatting to some local hams over the past day as I muse over the antennas, I decided it was time to really break apart the two antenna as different projects.

A horizontal will give me a hope of working HF closer to home - something I really need to do given the low power limits of my license.

The vertical is better for DX but hamstrung by lack of radials. 

In discussing many an option, the concept of flag poles come up. That led me to an idea. They're not stupidly expensive, and they're setup in a way that would make a dipole relatively serviceable. Plus I can take the damn thing out of the ground if I really need to. So.. I ordered a pair of 7m flag poles. That should give me a height over the roof line. Not entirely sure how to mount the side closest to the house yet. I may need to improvise that one. Next will be the 80/40/15m trapped dipole to string between them. If I can't make this give me an improvement, I'm not sure much will. 

The vertical still needs thought. I'm reluctant to try to retrofit radials on to it. My DIY skills with metal aren't great, and there are limits to the directions I can do things. I'd be more inclined to consider something like a GAP Titan DX - it's centre fed, and its counterpoises are about 6 1/2 foot long, so I can reasonably keep them inside the property boundary in the location of the current vertical.

Anyway, flag poles will be an interesting thing. Plus, I can run some Ford flags up when the in laws visit, when the car racing is on, or when I want to irritate the Holden owners near by.

Hopefully they're strong enough to cope with the wind. That is my biggest concern.. it does get rather windy here with nothing behind us.