Topband: Inverted L vs Shorted 80 Meter Coax

[ku8e at bellsouth.net]

> 
> From: <ku8e at bellsouth.net>
> Date: 2005/01/24 Mon PM 04:07:41 EST
> To: <topband at contesting.com>
> CC: <ku8e at bellsouth.net>, <k4bai at worldnet.att.net>
> Subject: Inverted L vs Shorted 80 Meter Coax
> 
>   Hi All,
> 
>   I helped my friend John, K4BAI , try to improve his 160 meter antenna this past weekend. In the past
>  he has been shorting the coax of his 80 meter inverted Vee, which the top is about 50 ft up his tower and tuning it with his antenna tuner. He has no ground system on this antenna.
> 
>  We put up an inverted L this weekend with about 55-60 ft vertical and the feedpoint is about 8 ft off the
>  ground. The rest of the wire is sloping down at maybe a 45 degree angle.  I put one fullsize 130 foot radial on it as a counterpoise. While this antenna is probably still a compromise I would think it would work better than what he had before. BTW, we are doing  no matching at the feedpoint... the wire was trimmed starting at 130 ft and cutting some off to get a good SWR. Would the antenna maybe work better if we put a 1:1 balun on it ???
> 
> He got on the air this weekend and says he is getting better reports on his old antenna. The stations he worked were close in and I was thinking he might try to work some DX and he will find the inverted L is better. Maybe the 80 meter shorted dipole is a "cloud burner" and that's why he got a better reports on it ???  I'm sure adding more radials would improve the performance of the L but he has limited space for more radials. Any suggestions ???
> 
>                           Jeff  KU8E
> 
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>