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RE: Topband: 200pF HV-capacitor for shunt feeding

To: "Top Band" <topband@contesting.com>,"Johannes Wilke" <Johannes.Wilke@t-online.de>
Subject: RE: Topband: 200pF HV-capacitor for shunt feeding
From: "John Kaufmann" <jkaufmann@alum.mit.edu>
Reply-to: jkaufmann@alum.mit.edu
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 20:47:42 -0500
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
> Does anybody know where to get a 200pF HV-capacitor for shunt feeding a
> tower on 160m? Is it possible to use RG213-cable as capacitor?

RG-213 generally makes a poor choice for a capacitor.  The issue is RF loss,
which appears as a resistance in series with the desired capacitance (or
inductance).  The longer the coax, the larger the resistance tends to be.
For example, one coax stub I measured with ~100 ohms of reactance also had
something like 10 ohms of series resistance!  This represents a Q of about
10, which is extraordinarily poor for a capacitor or inductor.  Put that at
the feedpoint of a low-impedance antenna and you'll suffer measurable gain
loss because of the loss resistance.

Use an air-variable or vacuum-variable capacitor and you won't have these
problems.  There are always a number of these capacitors for sale on eBay.

73, John W1FV

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