Gene and the group
An unexpexted trip to an Aunt's house to help her with
something cut short my antenna testing last night. I did make
about 3 contacts. All were somewhat close (less than 350 miles)
and two gave good signal reports (s9 to 5db over). The third
station could only hear me on voice peaks. He was in eastern VA
and had a s9 noise level. I guess thats not bad for less than 100 watts
and a shortened inverted L with less than 40' on the vertical.
I didn't have time to try anyone further out so will have to wait till I
get another evening to play (I mean do serious testing).
Intermediate results:
It works.....it got me on the band and I made some contacts.
The tunes well and the tuner likes it.....that is allways a plus.
It hears fairly well ....but with a higher noise level than my loop or
dipole....as expected.
Long distance work.....still needs to be tested for results.
Whats next:
I need to put down more ground radials.
I need to work out a matching system so I can omit the tuner (low power
type) and have the option of running the amp.
I need to look at getting the pulley on top the wood pole so I can go back
to an unloaded horiz. section as planned.
Thanks to all
JerryC
KC8TES
> Jerry:
>
> When you build antennas, there are two things to look for: Do they
> make contacts for you? and How close to theory do they come in their
> behavior? For me the former is the more important.
>
> Get on the air tonight and YOU tell US how well it works!
>
> 73 de
> Gene Smar AD3F
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry Connelly" <jerryc@clinchrivercorp.com>
> To: <TowerTalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2003 3:51 PM
> Subject: [TowerTalk] 160m inverted L now up
>
>
> Hello to all.
> Better weather and a few hours of daylight before leaving for work this
> morning and I have a new 160m inverted L in the air but untried.
> It didn't go as planned and I need some advice, reassurance or criticism
> to know what to do next.
>
> I had planned to put up about 175' of wire. The 40' tower and standoff
> would get the vertical portion up 38' above ground and the rest would run
> horizontal
> to an unused wooden light pole with a wooden cross bar at the top to toss
a
> line
> over. The line went over the cross bar easily but brought disaster. The
> cross bar had
> rotted with age and the connecting bolts failed and down came the entire
> cross bar and
> no easy way to get a pulley up.
>
> The only support nearby was a tree about 65' from the tower. 65' + 38' =
> too short.
> I remembered reading in the ARRL antenna book about linear loading
(folding
> the wire
> back on itself) and it is supposed to have less loss than inductive
loading
> or traps.
> I ran 12ga insulated wire for the vertical segment (40' long) to the
> insulator on top then I ran
> 58' of 450 ohm ladderline (one wire connected to the 12ga vert. wire, the
> other end left floating)
> from the insulator at the tower cross bar to the insulator at the tree
> (ladderline ends shorted
> together at this end). This gives me approx. 156' of wire. Its longer
than
> a 1/4 wave but short
> than the 165 to 175' that I wanted.
>
> The loading is in the horiz. section and most loss in inverted Ls is in
the
> ground loss around
> the vert. and in ground loss under a long low horizontal section. The
> linear loaded design I used
> leaves the vertical section as it would usually be and the horiz. loading
> might reduce ground loss
> since its shorter. Is this right or would the horizontal section ground
> loss still be the same (folded
> wire loading means same length of wire at the same height)???
>
> I had just enough time to lay down 3 ground radials (132' long) and 2
short
> (25' long) before
> leaving out to work. The tuner seems to like it but tonight will tell the
> tale.
> Any thoughts on this???
> Thanks
> JerryC
> KC8TES
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
any
> questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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