I would say make your own dipole/whatever but.... we will forgive you if you pick a ready made G5RV up Well you said you have not sat the foundation yet so I don't know if you have any knowledge on antennas etc Andy, or better still get to your club and the lads and lasses wil help you make one and you will learn at the same time
cheers Mark

My wife went away to NY for 4 days at my expense. I did some impressive aerial work whilst she was away. Definitely recommend not going big bang first off, let the XYL and neighbours get used to it. Keep it changing/experimental for a while which should suit you testing and non radio folk getting used to things. They start to presume you'll change it soon anyway so probably won't comment. My current experiment has been up for about 18 months! It also took me a while to get an antenna I was happy with and felt was the best I could install in my QTH without pushing my luck too far. Don't make the back garden look like a scrap yard, non radio people notice that but they rarely look up, that is a radio user thing to check the skyline.

You probably need to do the G5RV thing, it's a bit of a right of passage that you will appreciate whilst you have it and everything is new but it's all part of the game trying out something different which you might find is better.

BTW the NY thing was worth the expense....let's call it a worthwhile investment!

sadly true ....we all have one "rolled up" in the garage ..they are the foot spa's of the antenna world !

i normally try and guide people straight to the Inverted L these days or (what i consider the Ferrari of wire antennas) ...G Whip
http://www.gwhip.co.uk/ ...I haven't got mine up yet ...as i plan to Stealth upgrade in the darker winter season to avoid the complaining neighbors and Ninja my way back to 40m ...but the quality of built and materials really is A1

So thanks for all the advice! I now have an X-300 on a pole on the chimney



I also picked up an antenna advertised as a "scanner aerial" off ebay for £6 plus postage and was pleasantly surprised when I received a G5RV in the post. One end of the antenna is attached to the mountings on the chimney while the other is attached to a 20 foot pole in the tree at the bottom of the garden. The ladder line runs inside the shed and is directly attached to the radio.



This is working great for me considering I am still unlicensed and only listening at present but I would like to raise the antenna up another 10 feet or so out of the trees at the bottom of the garden. I'm not sure yet about having the ladder line connected straight to the radio, I may bring the ladder down at an angle in a straight line and use a balun and coax to bring it into the shed. So now I'm on the lookout for an ATU and a balun.

Happily listening in the shed :-)

http://youtu.be/9zmIMePHPNM

HI Andrew
Just to put my two pence worth in,

Ive used 3 different white stick multi bands on my chimney.
X30
x200
v2000.
The Diamond V2000 was the best of them all and gives you 3 bands, 6M, 2M & 70CMS.

My advice with your small chimney (like mine) is to always use 2 lashing kits, separated apart as far as possible (at least 2 rows of bricks down from top of chimney) for the top one.
Use a lightweight aluminium pole to mount the antenna so its base & radials are at least 500mm clear of the chimney top.

Have fun, welcome to the hobby and good luck with your exams.