Ted,
I had the opposite problem that you had. I put up a 68 foot 1/8 wave half
sloper for 160 meters (it is an electrical 1/4 wave with inductive loading at
the feed point). You can see my actual antenna set up in the March 1998
issue of QST. My tower is only 40 feet tall, and I have a TA33 mounted on
top. This antenna loading up just fine without an antenna tuner. Others
have also duplicated my antenna design without problems.
I then tried a full size 1/4 wave half sloper on 80 meters, and I could not
get the SWR below 3:1.
My tower is tied to an 8 foot ground rod, and no radials.
Not sure what you should do to solve your problem. The problems you are
having is the biggest problem I have read about regarding half slopers.
Sometimes they work just great, and other times people have problems getting
low SWR. I am sure there are many factors involved such as location on the
tower, tower height, angle of the antenna, ground/radials, tower top loading,
etc.
Sure would like know if you find a solution.
Good Luck,
Don Kirk (WD8DSB)
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