Dave, As far as switching your loop to a 160 top loaded vertical, yes you can do it remotely with relays and a matching network. If your goal is efficiency on 160 meters, the relay switching os only a small part of the equation - you must have a good RF ground for the vertical to work against, and that menas lots of wires in the ground, radiating from the base of the antenna. Some will tell you tht 120 radials will give optimum performance, but 16 or more will give great performance as well. If the radials are buried, the length is not critical, lots of short buried radials will do almost as good as a moderate number of long ones - see the 160 meter antenna simulation results that are outlined on L B Cebik's website www.cebik.com. More information on low band antennas can be found in ON4UN's Low Band DXing book - there are many possibilities.
For best results, put the 160 meter matching network at the base of the antenna and match it to your feedline. Since there are many possibilities, make some decision even though it may be a compromise and you too can be successful on 'top-band'. 73, Don W3FPR > -----Original Message----- > > I am very much enjoying reading the discussions on wire antennas. I > have something I have been trying to figure out how to do for some time, > and thought this might be a good place to ask. > > I have an 80m loop, up about 60 or 70 feet. Currently it is fed with > 300 ohm line. All I could find at the time, as what I had left in 450 > ohm line (after I helped my elderly neighbor get his antenna back up, > and gave him some of the ladder line) was not long enough. > Additionally, I went to the local hamfest this weekend and could not > find a single vendor selling ladder line, but I digress. I have > approximately 290 feet of wire in the air in a horizontal, triangular > configuration, fed with (soon to be) ladder line, a balun (1:1) and then > coax to the shack. Is it possible to switch this (seems possible from > what I have read) to a 160m antenna by taking one side to ground at the > balun and feeding the other side? If this is possible, is there a way > to do this remotely? > > David Wilburn > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > K4DGW > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.441 / Virus Database: 268.18.3/694 - Release Date: 2/20/2007 1:44 PM _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
