Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
>Frank,
>
>Had a good laugh at your last sentence.
>
>Now take any antenna resonating on 80m.
>What's your SWR at 3.500 MHz? 3.800 MHz? 4.000 MHz?
>
>I don't know a reasonable antenna that is under 2:1 across this range.
>In fact most will rise to 4:1 or higher.
>
>
I had my blinders on thinking about 20 meters and up. 80 meters is a
problem but there is a solution for those who need to cover the entire
band. Folded dipole cut for the lower middle of the band and a closely
spaced parasitic wire cut for the higher end of the band. I used such
an antenna a few years back and was able to cover both the high end of
75 and 80 CW with less than 1.5:1 SWR. Of course a folded dipole
sporting a parasitic wire is not exactly inconspicuous.
>Also, I have a peculiar situation of having lots of space, about 2 acres,
>but am renting and the owner lives in the other half of the house. We
>negotiated permission for ONE ANTENNA before I signed the lease. He
>wanted it as far out of site and inconspicuous as possible.
>
Again, appologies for my blinders. Being beholding to an unsympathetic
landlord is the pits.
>
>
>With one antenna and wanting to work all bands, I would normally use
>openwire to feed an 80m dipole.
>Openwire is out of the question because it is highly conspicuous.
>
>I put up a special OCF Dipole (just one radiator, not multiple) which covers
>80, 40, 30, 20, 15, 12, and 10m. 7 bands with just one antenna, fed with
>about 100' of LMR-240. The SWR is fairly good on all bands, being as high
>as 3.5:1 (worst case) on one band and averaging 2:1 on most bands. Not
>exactly the perfect antenna, but it gets the job done on all of these bands.
>
>I don't know of any other antenna fed with coax that can give an acceptable
>match on all of these bands.
>THEREFORE, I am quite happy to use the built-in ATU in my Eagle (or Jupiter,
>or Orion, etc.), even though in a perfect world, this would not be my
>antenna of choice and I would not want to have to use a tuner.
>
>I'm taking about reality, not virtual reality! :-)
>
>
Your reality is a little different from mine. I have lots of antennas,
no landloerd, and understanding neighbors. I did live in an appartment
many decades ago. At that time my hamming was done as a mobile.
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