Jack,
I second Pat's recommendation below. I've used the "Center Fed Zepp" that Pat
recommends in one form or another for many years. You can't beat it for
simplicity, low cost, and good operation. If you don't have room for a full
135 feet, put up something shorter. Just feed it in the center and use a tuner
and it will load up on all bands for which the flat top is at least a quarter
wavelength long. For many years I used a 67 foot flat top antenna very well on
80 meters and of course on the higher frequency bands. If possible, use a true
balanced tuner rather than one with a balun. The "transmatch plus balun" will
work OK, especially if your power is not too high. But baluns work best when
they are looking into their designed impedance level, and the impedance
presented by an open wire feedline (ladderline) will vary widely depending upon
the other antenna dimensions, the feedline length, and the operating frequency.
So a "matchbox" type of tuner that is designed for ba
lanced lines is a better bet.
73,
Jim Hanlon, W8KGI
----- Original Message -----
From: M. P. Haynes<mailto:k4beh@juno.com>
To: tentec@contesting.com<mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 9:53 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] was - "Radiates like Crazy"???? No
Hi Jack,
Welcome to the club! My suggestion from many years of experience is to
put up a 135 foot dipole as high as possible. Feed it with ladderline
and a tuner with a 4:1 balun. It will work all bands and give you great
results. You can buy it prepackaged for about $40 It is made by a
company called Van Gordon and is sold by most radio distributors (Amateur
Electronic Supply, Ham Radio Outlet,etc.) If you have room for more
antennas later you can make or purchase more elaborate and complex ones
that will work with additional gain and directivity in a specific
direction (beams, quads, etc.) but as a first antenna you'll find the
dipole hard to beat! Pick up an antenna handbook at a hamfest somewhere
and it will give you lots of ideas and insight into antennas.
73,
Pat Haynes-K4BEH
Hamming since 1954
On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 09:42:01 -0500 "Jack Rubin"
<jack.rubin@ameritech.net<mailto:jack.rubin@ameritech.net>>
writes:
> Excuse me for jumping in here, and really, I'm not trying to pour
> gasoline
> on the fire!
>
> I'm a new Tech with an Omni D waiting for me to pass my code test;
> in the
> meantime I'm reading this list and a few others and soaking up a lot
> of
> information (including the fact that various folks have had varying
> experiences and often have divergent opinions).
>
> I'm especially interested in this thread because I've yet to install
> a
> "serious" antenna - I've been SWL'ing with a slinky - and I'm
> looking for an
> antenna with the magic combination of low cost, low visual/spousal
> impact
> and good performance. At this point, something like the folded
> dipole might
> make some sense for space reasons, but here's my specific question -
> has
> anyone had experience with the Isotron line of antennas? They are
> at
> http://www.isotronantennas.com/<http://www.isotronantennas.com/> - not an
all-band product but
> definitely
> "stealthy".
>
> Thanks and 73s,
>
> Jack
> KC9HVE
>
> _______________________________________________
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> TenTec@contesting.com<mailto:TenTec@contesting.com>
>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec<http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec>
>
>
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