Topband: HyTower and 160 meter Operation

[Tim Duffy]

The first HyTower I installed had a very good radial system (180 radials
at least 66 ft long) and it was a great antenna on 80 and 40 meters.

I followed the HyGain instructions and installed the coil at the bottom
of the tower for 160 meter operation. It was not an efficient antenna
for 160 meters. It was not fun trying to work average DX unless I was
the only one calling and then I might only work the guy 20% of the time.
The 2:1 VSWR bandwidth was 15 KHz.

After a few contests of frustration,  I shunt fed a 70 ft crank up tower
with 40 and 10 meter beams on top and 120 radials about 90 ft long. The
shunt fed tower was 5 to 6 S-units (on the Drake R4C that was about 25
dB) better than the HyTower on 160. The shunt fed tower was a much
better antenna for 160.

The HyTower is one of my favorite 80 meter monoband antennas. I now use
4 modified monoband HyTowers (the length was changed from 51 to 75 feet)
for my 80 meter 4 square array. With seven miles of radial wire and a
Comtek Systems dual Hybrid Network this system performs very well.

73!
Tim K3LR




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