FWIW, my original 160M vertical began life as a 40M antenna: three sections of
lattice tower and 20 quarter wavelength radials. It then evolved into an 80M
antenna with more tower sections and another 10 or so 67 ft radials. In its
final form, it is 82 ft top-loaded on 160 with all the original buried wires
plus 7 quarter wavelength radials fully buried in the pasture, another 8
deployed across a neighbouring field in winter plus 18 more wires of varying
lengths laid on the back lawn (total of 63). All wire is plastic-coated, #22
to #16 in size.
In late spring, summer and early fall before the temporary wires go down I have
a nice wide bandwidth of about 110 khz between the 2:1 SWR points and a low SWR
point at 1828. After I put down the 18 wires across the lawn the bandwidth
narrows to about 100 khz and the SWR low point drops to around 1825. When the
8 quarter wave wires go down after plowing the bandwidth drops a bit more to
around 95 khz and the low SWR point is close to 1820.
The new antenna is the same height and has 64 buried radials varying in length
from about 85 to 135 ft in length, all plastic coated. The 2:1 bandwidth on
this one is about 90 khz. I really am not motivated to install more wire as
the antennas, singly or phased together, seem to work quite well.
Bill VE3NH
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Topband Reflector
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