Topband: elevated vertical matching

[DAVID CUTHBERT]

Steve,

The radiation resistance of your balloon vertical will be 36 ohms. By the time you add in ground losses you will be up to around 50 ohms. I would just feed it at the base and tweak the length to resonate it at 1830 kHz (or whatever you like). This antenna will cover over 100 kHz with a VSWR below 2:1. I would just put it up, base feed it, and fine tune it with a good tuner at the shack. As long as the VSWR is below 6:1 at resonance things should be fine.

     Dave WX7G