TopBand: Top Hat Loaded Verticals

[w8jitom@postoffice.worldnet.att.net]

> John, W1FV, has been using  ~41 foot tall verticals for many years on
> 80M. They use the top set of guys as the loading and are arranged in a
> triangle array with 1/8 wave spacing. John has one of the best 80M
> signals on the East Coast. 

I do the same thing on 80 Carl. My 35 ft 80 meter vertical 
compares quite well against a 130 ft long dipole up at 130 ft on 80. 
I use about 60 radials 70 feet long on 80.

In Sylvania Ohio, I used the same setup on 160. The upper guys of a 
70 ft tower top loaded the vertical. A three wire hat doubling as 
guy lines worked quite well.

In short radiators,  as the radiator's PHYSICAL length is cut in 
half, radiation resistance goes down four times. That means 
ground loss will be FOUR times higher (with the same ground system) 
if you make the antenna half the PHYSICAL height.

No amount of wire folding, bat wings or chanting while dancing  
around a fire will fix the problem.

73, Tom

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