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Re: Topband: In search of resonance

To: "donovanf@starpower.net" <donovanf@starpower.net>
Subject: Re: Topband: In search of resonance
From: Carl Braun <Carl.Braun@lairdtech.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:14:33 +0000
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Sorry I sent the last post by accident.

To the point what I'm seeing is a resonance OF THE TOP WIRE ONLY.  This 
explains why my MFJ reads R=4 ohms at 1820...it's grounding or shunting the 
whole vertical portion of the L.

So this leads me to dropping the idea of the inverted L and focusing on shunt 
feeding the tower.

I will start a new post related to that topic.

Thanks to all that provided me with input.

Carl AG6X

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 30, 2014, at 7:58 AM, 
"donovanf@starpower.net<mailto:donovanf@starpower.net>" 
<donovanf@starpower.net<mailto:donovanf@starpower.net>> wrote:

Carl,

Are you sure your MFJ meter isn't being overloaded by a broadcast station?
Thats a very common problem especially on 160 meters.

73
Frank
W3LPL


________________________________
From: "Carl Braun" <Carl.Braun@lairdtech.com<mailto:Carl.Braun@lairdtech.com>>
To: topband@contesting.com<mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 4:16:53 AM
Subject: Topband: In search of resonance


Hello to the group

I'm a newbie to 160 having only participated in various contests over the 
course of the last two years.  I used an 80 meter aluminum tube vertical with a 
Reyco trap affixed to the top with a horizontal "L: wire heading over to the 
palm tree.  I've since converted that antenna into a pair of 40M verticals so 
I'm focusing my efforts on getting a resonant antenna on 60 and especially 160.

Here's the hardware I'm working with...

90' Tri Ex Skyneedle tower with a Telrex 20 meter 5-element yagi on a 45' boom 
at 94'.

Inverted L wire runs parallel to the tower and is spaced at 36" up to 85' and 
then out approx 60' or so.

The tower is grounded via copper strap to three ground rods that are bonded to 
1 ½" copper pipe that circles the perimeter of my tower and control panel base. 
The perimeter copper pipe is a 4' x 8' rectangle that currently has 16 radials 
screwed to it.  Three of those radials are tied into my 40M phased array ground 
radial system with some of the radials as short as 30' and others as long as 
100'.  The ground screen for my 40M array uses 100 radials each 60-90' long.  
I'm adding radials as I have time.  Half of the 16 radials are multi conductor 
rotor control cable that fans out to affix to the radial ring then converge 
back together for 10' across the driveway and then fan out.  I do this to 
eliminate a lot of individual wires crossing my secondary driveway.

I cannot get the inverted L to provide a dip on my MFJ 259 analyzer anywhere in 
the 160 meter band.  I get dips at 8.2 MHz (R=36 ohms X=0) with reactance on 
each side of X=0.  At 5 MHz R=40 ohms X=0 with reactance on each side of X=0.  
I cant get any significant dips neat the 80 or 160 band.  However, when I 
approach 1.750MHz the resistance drops to 6 ohms and X is off the scale...at 
1.825 I'm at 10 ohms and X is off the scale.  Its as if my 140+ feet of wire is 
resonant on 8MHz.

Also, I've experimented with shunt feeding the tower to see where the thing 
would resonate but got similar results.  ON4UN says my 90' tower and 5 ele yagi 
should yield an antenna that is 110 to 115 degrees in total length so I 
followed his guidelines and tapped the tower at 67' with a gamma wire spaced at 
36" .  The tower had multiple dips at 27 MHz, 20 MHz, 14 MHz and at 7.5 MHz the 
resistance dropped to 6 ohms...the same low resistance I' m now seeing on the L 
at 1.750 or so.  No dips were observed at 3.5 or 1.8 MHz. I plan to experiment 
with a gamma wire that goes all the way to the top of the tower to see where it 
resonates...if its still high in freq maybe I should consider an Omega match

So all of that being said...why cant I find a resonant frequency on 160 with 
this L?  Am I still too long?  Is the tower causing that much interaction? I'd 
rather not cut the L long and insert a variable cap...I want it resonant at 
1820 so I can use an unun to match the impedance and then run it into the shack.

Any suggestions on getting the antenna to work?

Thanks in advance for any help


Carl AG6X

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