doing my best to improve my 160 capabilities on a small suburban lot. Only
have G5RV up at this point, flat-topped, at about 30' Runs mostly N-S. I
have added connectors to allow me to make it a "T" as follows:
1) Short stub of coax that connects to the SO-239 at the end of the G5's
ladder line with PL-259. Other end has braid and center conductor twisted
together. I feed that to the center conductor of another stub (from DX
engineering)
2) The ground conductor of the DXe stub connects to a DX engineering radial
plate. This is all at the base of the antenna.
3) I ran two long radials, one north and the other south, pretty much under
the flat-top portion of the G5, each about 50' long
I am already hearing better on 160, but my signal reports have been dismal.
My MFJ-969 usually tunes the G5RV well across all bands, but tuning this "T"
effort on 80 and 160 does not achieve a 1:1 SWR at all.
Running 100w from Kenwood TS-690s.
I KNOW this is not optimal, but trying to do the best I can at this stage.
Only other real option is to run a low horizontal loop around my property .
. .
All comments welcome.
Thanks
Trent
N4DTF
(EM55 near Memphis, TN)
On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Mike Waters W0BTU
<mrscience65704@yahoo.com>wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> N6LF recently found that the optimum radial length depends on how many
> radials
> you lay down. Check this out:
>
> http://www.w0btu.com/files/antenna/Optimum_no_of_radials_vs_radial_length.html
>
> 73,
> Mike Waters
> www.w0btu.com
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Lunday <mlunday@nc.rr.com>
> To: Mark Lunday <mlunday@nc.rr.com>; topband@contesting.com
> Sent: Sun, November 7, 2010 1:38:20 PM
> Subject: Re: Topband: 160 meter current-fed T antenna, where did I go
> wrong?
>
> Thanks very much to so many fellow hams who responded to my original post!
> Nice to know the fraternity continues to help those with questions.
>
> This afternoon, a lovely fall day in North Carolina, I abandoned the
> voltage
> T and decided to "man up" and put down 6 x 120 foot radials for the 160
> meter 1/4 wave inverted L which I had given up hoping for. I already have
> 6
> x 32 foot and 4 x 64 foot on the inverted L.
>
> RF coming back into the shack has been greatly reduced. Remote tuner
> working just fine. Looks like I am headed in the right direction. So far
> that makes 2 wavelengths of radial wire down. Probably need another
> wavelength.
>
> Will listen tonight to see how things go. Anyone know where we are in the
> "27 day solar rotation" which seems to affect 160 meters? Are we miday
> through, nearing good conditions, nearing poor conditions, etc? Thanks
>
> Mark Lunday
> WD4ELG
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
>
--
Trent Fleming
www.trentfleming.com
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