Thanks everyone for all the replies.
I guess that I will work on several things now for the next winter season.
 First is the standby length of wire to use as an inverted L which I used as 
a fan vertical last winter.
 Second I will also play with the coil loading on the 80m vertical and do 
some reverse beacon testing to see what happens with the belief that it will 
not be as good as the L
 Third I will study my options with the trees to see if I can figure out an 
inverted T arraignment as this may be the best of all.   Now I have to study 
on how to calculate the length of such an antenna.
 Also when the lawn mowing season is done I will add some more radial wires 
to the radial field.
 Thanks for all the comments, now I have more options to play with and may I 
work you all on the air this year.
~73
Don
KD8NNU
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 -----Original Message----- 
From: Chortek, Robert L
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2013 5:38 PM
To: Goldtr8 (KD8NNU)
Cc: topband
Subject: Re: Topband: Vertical vs inverted L question/opinions
Don,
 Others are far more knowledgable than I, but top loading has less loss than 
base loading so the L should perform better, all else being equal.
 That said, I have been using a 60' base loaded vertical with 8 elevated 
radials and have 136 countries from a 1/4 acre city lot in the black hole of 
California,  I suspect the total would be a lot better with an L!
Good luck,
Bob
AA6VB
Sent from my iPhone
 On Aug 10, 2013, at 11:10 AM, "Goldtr8 (KD8NNU)" <goldtr8@charter.net> 
wrote:
 I am requesting opinions on what would work best for 160m based on a 
bottom loaded vertical or inverted L.
 I have in the past used and inverted L for 160m using a common feed with 
my 80m vertical.   The 80m vertical has parallel wires for 40m and 20m 
also and it works real well with 38 radials laid down in the grass.  I 
like to compare it to a fan dipole but only the vertical section is the 
multi wire part as the radials are buried.
 Anyway I am starting to plan for the winter season and I am wondering if a 
loading coil on the bottom of the vertical would yield better results than 
the inverted L.   The L is limited to at best 50ft vertical section and 
the rest on trees.    My thoughts are if I use the 80m vertical section I 
will have 68 ft of height which may be better than the L.    The vertical 
is not structurally strong enough to add a wire or a cap hat to the top of 
it.
 Clearly I have the ability to try both and play around but I have time to 
make alternate plans so I am fishing for opinions and or suggestions.
~73
Don
KD8NNU
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