The loss is quite small with the small wire. Running 100 W the loss going
from #12 to #26 wire is about 4 watts. I would not bother with a balun. It
will work fine without it and what's a little feedline radiation but an
addition to your antenna? RG-174 coax will do the job and be somewhat
stealthy.
I operate 160-10 meters from an antenna restricted neighborhood. CW DX is my
thing and I work it on 80 meters on up running 500 watts to a screwdriver
antnena disquised as a bird house support. At night the 6' whip is replaced
with either a 9' whip (MFJ sells these) or the 9' whip plus a 6' Hustler
extension. Then I have a 19' vertical.
For 160 meters I run the antenna (at nite) as a 11' top loaded vertical with
a Hustler RM80 resonator and a top hat from DX Engineering. Radiation
efficiency is a few percent and it's good for stateside work. For DXing a
130' balloon vertical makes an appearance after sundown. #26 copperweld wire
from The Wireman, a 36" helium balloon, 500 watts and DX is to be had on top
band.
Dave WX7G
On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 1:51 PM, Jim Murray <adkmurray@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello All!
> The good news from here in the Adirondack Mountains is that we now own a
> place in a warmer climate to spend the winters in. The bad news is I will
> miss a lot of the best 160M conditions AND I have a no outside antenna deed
> restriction. I don't know if I can possibly hide at least a vertical there
> or not. Recently I've seen a couple of articles regarding "invisible
> antennas", using smaller wire etc. I want to at least get a 20M dipole up
> somehow. Aside from any possible ideas on antennas I am wondering about the
> efficiency loss of using small diameter wire (100W). I have a roll of #26
> I'd be willing to blacken and try it out but will it work as good as 14 or
> 12? I don't have a balanced line tuner and would feed the ant. in the
> center with a balun (hard to hide those). I have one tree in the rear of
> the home which looks to be about enough distance for only a 10-20M antenna.
> The tree could possibly hide a vertical of about 25'. I
> don't see any other options right now and lowbands will surely be
> restricted up to the time the xyl decides it's time to head South.
> Regards to all,
> Jim/k2hn
>
>
>
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