Steve, The choices are not "either/or" vis-à-vis the coax. You can have the rig inside, feed coax through the window and attach to the antenna and counterpoise in the clear and tune it with your internal tuner. There will be some loss due to the mismatched coax, but for a 5 or 10 foot cable it will be small, likely less than you lose by transmitting inside your room (I fried an inn's hair dryer doing that <g>). If you are compelled, a pass at EZNEC and TLW can calculate the actual loss, but it won't be much.
Regards, Joel Hallas, W1ZR Westport, CT From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Steve KC8QVO Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 5:55 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Travel antennas - outside with rig inside I am out of town this weekend and brought my 28' random wire/counterpoise. I have the random wire and counterpoise going out the window about 5' away. The tip of the random wire goes up in a tree about 15' up. The counterpoise goes out the window the opposite direction weaved through some bushes (to keep off the ground) about 5' up. The antenna seems to perform a ton better in a portable set up outside. There are signals I can hear on 40, but they are much weaker than if I set up outside. Another note is the window frame is wood and cranks open. I pulled the screen out to have clear access through the window. Wire is #26 Silky Wire from The Wireman (my favorite). I am thinking for this kind of set up I need to get the feedpoint OUTSIDE the window. Right now the wires come through the window and attach to the rig with a BNC-binding post adapter. I believe getting the feedpoint outside the window requires a coax cable and external tuner. Does anyone have any ideas on running the tuner inside the rig that may work without coax? Balanced feed lines will still detune through the window frame too, they need to be clear. Maybe it would perform better than the wires I have now though. Steve, KC8QVO ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
