The other day I posted an antenna question about making a K1 antenna
that avoids halfwave multiples (& thanks again to the guys who replied
offlist). From the calculations in that note and some modeling by
another op it seems the ~18m/60' is probably the length to try there.
But end-fed halfwave antennas have some advantages, especially the fact
that as a voltage fed antenna they have less of a need for a low
impedance ground to keep rf losses low. On the other hand, they offer
very high impedance to the tuner. The KAT1 manual says to look out for
"rf problems" at exact half wavelengths but doesn't come out and say if
it can or can't handle it (even if just at certain ranges of length).
A longtime ham told me some ATUs used to have a switch to move a cap to
one end of the matching network or another to offer a wider matching
range. So if the KAT1 can handle the impedance, great. If not, maybe I
can put a coil in series and tap it at the 50 Ohm point of the coil.
I'm not sure if it's worth the effort, especially since it'd be nice to
keep portable ops as simple as possible. But if there's a noticeable
performace increase... Has anyone tried either method? (That is,
direct connection of halfwave end-fed or tapping an inductor.) Thanks
for any ideas.
73,
Mike ab3ap
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