DON - you were ROARING IN to Florida on 160m a few months back. Strongest signal on the band. I had assumed that you were using a full-sized vertical. Seriously!
I was considering a homebrew "Carolina Windom" for my "soon-to-be-smaller-sized lot." Brian, AF4K. On 23 Dec 2004 at 0:03, Donald Chester wrote: > > >What kind of "crappy" antennas are you using, i.e., doublets fed with coax, > >open wire lines, etc., or end-fed wires? Or, some combination of types > >maybe? > > > > > >Rather that building up a bunch of tuners you might consider putting your > >efforts into erecting a set of antennas that all worked directly off a 50 > >or 75 > >ohm coax feedlines. Half-wave dipoles, one for each band, for example, or > >one > >or more of the multi-band arrangements (G5RV, fan and trap dipole, etc.). > > I think the best solution would be to erect one good dipole, as high as you > can get it, for the lowest frequency band you operate. If you don't have > that much space, consider a shortened dipole for the lowest band. Feed it > with open wire line and a balanced tuner (not one of those bogus jobs with > unbalanced T or L network coupled to the balanced line via a balun). I > prefer to make my multi-band tuners using plug in coils and split stator air > variables. You should be able to transform the driving impedance of that > antenna to 50 ohms nonreactive on about any amateur frequency, without a > forest of separate dipoles growing out of the shack. Then couple whichever > transmitter you are using to the tuner. > > At present I use a system a little more complicated. I still use one dipole > for all bands, but a separate tuner for each band. That way the tuner is > pre-tuned to frequency and all I have to do is load the appropriate > transmitter into it and switch the feedline to it. > > The dipole is cut for 80m, but I can load it up on 160 as a quarterwave > dipole with fairly good results. It is about 110 ft. high, so the height > somewhat compensates for the shortness of it on 160. > > I use a separate L-network to match the the quarterwave base-insulated > vertical on 160, which is my main topband antenna. > > 73, Don K4KYV > > > ______________________________________________________________ > AMRadio mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html > Post: mailto:AMRadio@mailman.qth.net
