That's what I use... about 103 feet... and gives reasonable match on all bands.
Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ / J68HZ/ 8P6HK/ ZF2HZ/ PJ4HZ/ VP5HZ Owner - Operator Big Signal Ranch Staunton, Illinois email: b...@wjschmidt.com -----Original Message----- From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Burdick Sent: Friday, July 04, 2014 6:15 PM To: Jim GM Cc: Elecraft Subject: Re: [Elecraft] A Good Antenna Length? Jim, Try 102 feet (or so) for each leg of a dipole fed with twinlead or open-wire line. This is not a close multiple of a half-wave on any band from 160-6 meters, so it stands a chance of providing a reasonable match on all bands. If the internal tuners can't find a match on one or two bands, adjust the length of one or both sides by a couple of feet experimentally. It'll be slightly imbalanced if it ends up off-center-fed, but this won't have much practical impact. At my QTH I use a 4:1 balun (Elecraft BL2) right at the radio to feed this antenna. The BL2 also has a 4:1/1:1 switch. I use the 4:1 setting for all but one band, where the 1:1 setting makes it easier on the ATU. Note that if you don't get to a low SWR when you first tap ATU TUNE, tap again within 5 seconds and the tuner will try more LC combinations. This will nearly always provide a 2:1 or better match unless the antenna presents a very high impedance. The KXAT3 will match a wider range than the KXAT100. For safety reasons, our QRO ATUs put limits on the SWR they will try to match. Use a good ground at the station. If in your installation you experience any RFI at higher power, drop back to a lower level. 73, Wayne N6KR On Jul 4, 2014, at 2:21 PM, Jim GM <jim.gmfo...@gmail.com> wrote: > What antenna lengths are you using on 160M with your KX3 or KXPA100 > internal tuner? What is best for 160-6 meters? I like making my own > antennas with wire. > > I usually have to give up one band or another cause it just would not tune > up on a certain band. > > I have tried to stay with in these guide lines. > > -- > Jim K9TF > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to n...@elecraft.com ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to b...@wjschmidt.com ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
