Topband: Preamp for Pennant

[Ford Peterson]

I'm designing a set of 4 pennant antennas for 160.  They will be switchable
in-out to a common feedline.  I'm basing the design on K6SE's work published
in 7/00 QST.

I've decided on the Point-fed design to allow the use of 4 switched elements
90 degrees apart.

The feedpoint impedance is modeled to be around 960 ohms or so.  A simple
transformer can do the trick to get it down to 50 ohms.  However, when
pondering about the pre-amp, I'm thinking of looking at doing the
transformation in an active element instead of a transformer.  Finding a
high input impedance device for topband should not be a big deal.  The
amplifier can then be matched to 50 ohm output.

Is this a reasonable approach?  Would it be better to stick with 50 ohms
in/out in the active element?  Am I inventing the wheel here?

Ford-N0FP
ford@cmgate.com