A combination of work and other priorities at home has kept me mostly off the air for the last few months. But with some free time over Christmas, I have finally got round to sorting out a new (albeit temporary) antenna.
My old doublet had already lost part of one of its arms many months ago - the wire had been rubbing against a guttering downpipe when it was windy. I had made a tempoarary repair at the time, but then a couple of weeks ago, the same arm came apart at the centre insulator - metal fatigue, I guess.
We may be having some building work done at the back to the house, which could mean I will have to move my shack. So I didn't want to spend a lot of time repairing the doublet which might become redundant in a few months.
Instead, I have rigged up a simple end-fed wire - from the shack up to the eaves, along the back of the house, then down to the back wall of the garden. I guess it is about 30m long in total. Seems to tune up OK on 30, 20 and 17 meters. I'll do some more testing over the weekend.