My 2 element 40m array is of the same basic design as the 20m and 17m arrays described below, except it uses aluminum elements constructed of locally purchased tubing. Each element is 33' tall and rests on a plastic insulator which keeps it off the ground; support is provided exclusively by the 4 guy wires made of weed trimmer cord. The aluminum is 1 1/4" diameter from the base to about 22' and 1" from there up. The elements are spaced 33' apart and oriented at roughly 60 / 240 degrees.

In an economy move while constructing this array, I only used connectors on the feed lines, and screws for all other connections. The coax phasing line for this array is about 80' of mini-RG8. The f/b on this array has been reported as 20 to 30 dB. How much, if any, gain it has compared to a full size dipole at 70 feet is not clear, but my opinion is that it's worth about half an S unit.

The vertical antennas described here can be put together at a cost of about $50-75 (U.S.) per element buying materials from local suppliers. The elements are made from L type copper plumbing tubes available from the local hardware store here in the U.S. Each tube is 10' in length. Each element consists of two tubes, one 3/4 inches in diameter and a second 1/2 inch in diameter. The tubes are soldered together using a standard copper coupling. I use a propane torch for all soldering. Before soldering I always burnish all copper surfaces to assure a good electrical connection. After the two tubes are soldered together, the element can be cut (from the top) to resonance. I use an MFJ-259B for this purpose.

More recently, I have been able to obtain good aluminum tubing from local suppliers. If you can find it, it is much easier to work with. The 40m array is only practical using aluminum, as the weight of the copper is too much.

Each element should be as close to identical as you can make it. These copper pipe elements are quite sturdy for frequencies at 14 MHz and higher; the element I made for 10 Mhz needed guying or perhaps a taller support. The tubes have a high copper content and make excellent radiators.

Each antenna has a simple Marconi feed using a feed-through coax connector available from various suppliers (Radio Shack part #21-961). These elements are connected with 52 ohm coax. The ground side of the connection goes to a flat piece of copper which serves as a solder plate for the ground radials. I use 4 radials per element. Each radial is one-quarter wavelength long. My radials slope from the base of the element to the ground. Radials are the subject of a great deal of discussion among hams, but honestly I have not found them to be a critical factor. The antenna side of the connection bolts through the bottom of the antenna element. The antenna is mounted on a hardwood stake about two feet above the earth. Plastic pipe supports are used to insulate the radiator from the wood and u-bolts hold it in place.

The 6 element inline array performs very well and will take up about 65 feet from end to end. Properly placed, because of the thin profile of the elements, the antenna has little visual impact from a distance.