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[TowerTalk] 80 & 160 Meter Ant

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Subject: [TowerTalk] 80 & 160 Meter Ant
From: W8JI@contesting.com (Tom Rauch)
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 11:20:24 -0400
> Anyone have any thoughts on a wire antenna for 80 & 160 meters that will
> fit on a small city lot.  When I was running an Alinco DX70T/H the tuner
> that worked with it would tune up 60' of wire on all bands 10-160 and I
> have worked stations on 160.  The new rig has a built in tuner, but
> doesn't like the 60' wire at the 80-160 meters.  I've also tried a manual
> tuner, but doesn't work very well on the 60' wire.  I do have a number of
> trees on the lot.

Think vertical Ted, with as many radials as you can muster, if you 
are interested in more than a few hundred miles on 160.

A dipole folded into your lot may also work.

In ALL cases keep the current carrying portion as straight as 
possible, and keep the open ends carrying high voltage away from 
lossy things like the dirt below the antenna.

Small areas and low bands are an interesting problem. Most of the 
special solutions and silver bullets tend to be not so silver.

K8GIJ did a wonderful job by putting up an end fed 130 foot zepp 
and filling his tiny yard with radials that he tied into everything 
metal. With that small setup in a 130 by 30 foot lot (or something 
similar) he always came within four or five dB of my 1/4 wl tower 
and 120 radials in a marsh. He fed the Zepp as a vertical on 160, 
and a zepp on the other bands.
 

73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com

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