[TenTec] Resonant antennas

[Ken Brown]

This is not a Ten-Tec specific topic, however.....

> And, of course, 
>he/she needs to know how to change bands and load the antennas (which ought to be 
>resonant).
>
While there may be some reasons that it is "nice" or "convenient" to 
have antennas resonant, it is absolutely not necessary. I does not even 
make them work better in some instances, or significantly better in most 
instances. Yes, the transmitter should have a load which is not too far 
from being the right impedance and low reactance (50 ohms for most rigs 
these days) This can be accomplished using a tuner, making the antenna 
system (antenna, feedline and tuner) not necessarily the antenna by 
itself, resonant. Or it can be accomplished by using a wideband antenna, 
such as a discone or log periodic, that has such a broad flat impedance 
curve that it can hardly be called "resonant" at all. A lossy antenna ar 
a dummy load is another way, but of course not the best.

Ken N6KB