Topband: verticals

[Ken Brown]

>
>
>There may be reasons for certain heights.  I found from Smith chart work that 
>the 70 foot was optimum for 80m as a single series C was all the network 
>needed to cover most of that band. 
>
Hi Bob,

Thanks for the information about your experience with verticals of 
various heights. I don't intend this to be a criticism, just an 
observation. It seems that quite often hams choose ease of matching to 
their transmitters, over other considerations that may be more important 
in producing a stronger signal. In this case you called the 70 foot 
vertical "optimum" because the matching system was simple. In this 
particular case you are talking about a pretty efficient antenna, and 
good capacitors usually are much less lossy than most inductors. So in 
some sense this length antenna really is optimum. All too often though, 
I hear of hams being stuck on the notion that a low SWR over a wider 
potion of the band is a good thing, when it actually can be an 
indication of a lossy antenna.

Ken N6KB