Lee Buller wrote:
I am not sure that this has been discussed before on the reflector, but will
the KAT100 tune a longwire? Really, it should, but how does one connect the
longwire to the tuner? Banana plug to the center pin with the counterpoise
clipped to the ground lug? That is what I did with the old DX-40...but that
was 40 years ago.
You can do this. I would avoid lengths of wire that are an exact multiple
(within about 6 inches or so) of a half wavelength on one of the frequencies on
which you want to operate, since the impedance will be very high under such
conditions and may be difficult to match. Good counterpoise lengths are odd
multiples of a quarter-wavelength. Remember that the end of the counterpoise
will be at high RF potential.
If the counterpoise is ineffective, you may have the well-known RF-in-the-shack
problem. Another issue is that the antenna will be very prone to pick up noise
from computers, monitors, etc., that are nearby.
Someone will probably say something about RF exposure. I believe that at HF and
KAT100 power levels there is no a safety problem. According to the calculator
at <http://n5xu.ae.utexas.edu/rfsafety/>, assuming 50% duty cycle, 0 DBd gain,
100 watts at 28 MHz, (this works for either 50 watts RTTY/PSK or 100w SSB/CW),
and a distance to the center of the antenna of 7 feet, you are cool according to
the [flame on] ridiculous, lawyer-driven, idiotic, stupid [flame off] FCC
requirements.
--
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
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