[TenTec] 80m antenna suggestion

[ac5e at comcast.net]

Hi Chris: I'm sure you will get all sorts of suggestions for this or that "wonderwire" or "wonder beam" but the fact is that on 75/80 only a gain (directional) antenna will outperform a simple dipole. You can't get more out than you put in - and a well matched and resonant dipole is around 95 percent efficent. 

Can you squeeze in a 90 foot "dipole?" I have had quite good results with an Alpha Delta DX-EE and its "all band" brother the DX-CC. They are, by field strength measurement, a quarter dB or so down on 75 (expected since I had not trimmed it and it was resonant just below 3.5 mHz) and gave nothing away on 40.

Like all "dipoles" the pattern is more like a puffball mushroom than the conventional "inner tube" pattern in the antenna books. Still, I manage to work the 80 Meter DX I can hear in this noisy residential area. 

73  Pete Allen  AC5E