Good Evening...
Put up my 160M INVERTED L two days before the contest...and I could NOT
be happier!
Did a LOT of planning work ahead of time (like months <smiling>)...but
in a nut shell....
Have 72 feet vertical 4 feet from tower....complete with 1.5" PVC
standoffs...
68 feet horizontal at 70 feet bearing 210 degrees....(if you care to
know...)...
For radials...I took an back issue of teh Contesting Journal (picked up
from W3PP's QTH...)
and read an article about what length of radials to have based on amount
of wire used...
Well, I am currently only at (30) 65 foot radials and will be taking
that to 69 in a few weeks...
I made ground staples out of coat hangers...and have it pinned downed
every 2 feet!!!
I have a 1000 pf Mortor Driven vacuum variable capacitor in a tupperware
box at the base of the "L"...and
man do I "think" this baby plays....In a previous posting I indicated my
first QSO was with 8Q7DV!!!
I thought, "Not too bad"...but really seemed to work very well in this
weekend's contest....
I connected an RF current meter at the base of the tower and saw
indications that I needed to detune the tower...
SO...I did that...Go it so the RF Current meter moves NOT!!! and I mean
...NOT AT ALL!!!
Here is my question for the masses......:
When I tuned the Vacuum Variable Cap for min SWR...(Flat by the
way.....) I was VERY shocked to see that I had under a 1.4:1 SWR from
1.8 to 2.0 megahertz!!
This is NOT what I expected as the few local hams here who have INV L's
said they have a 2:1 SWR curve of about 100KCs.....SO.....
I have had a LOT of big antennas over my amateur career...(28 to be
exact)...and this is fairly impressive......
Your thoughts please and or experiences with this bandwidth I am
experiencing!!!
Hard to argue with success I think....
Worked 5T5SN on TopBand this afternoon at 4:30 PM local time
(2130Z)....hmmmmmm GOTTA LOVE IT!!
Jose Castillo
N4BAA
_______________________________________________
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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