Antennas, antennas, antennas
With the tower foundation in place and curing in the Iowa summer sun, it’s time to think about the antenna system. Topping the mast (~83′) will be the Cushcraft XM-240 which is a two element “shorty forty” monoband antenna for 40 meters. Beneath that (at about 73′) will be the SteppIR 4 element yagi which covers 6m, 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m, and 20m. These will be fed with the coax ordered last week (LMR-400-UF equiv. from CableXperts: CXP1318FX). All of this will be turned by a hefty rotor from Prosistel. I doubt that I’ll have any UHF or VHF antennas at first.
Now I need to select antennas for the other HF bands: 30m, 80m, 160m. Primary interests are contesting and DXing (all modes). I have a used AlphaDelta sloper antenna for 80 & 160 meters ($15). However, I’m thinking that a better choice would be to look into shunt loading the tower for the low bands. Another possibility would be an shortened inverted V. I don’t really have any trees or other support structures to use in the area – so I’m a bit limited with wire antennas for low bands. Something else to cause me to scratch my head. 
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