Topband: 80/160 trap vertical

[wa5pok at peoplepc.com]

> 
> I would be interesting in hearing any stories about trap verticals used for 
> covering 80 and 160.  

Hi Tree,

I have used 80/160 antennas with and w/o traps. I pulled an 80 
meter wire vertical up a pine tree and add a linear loading section 
that I could switch in/out with a relay. Worked fine.

 For my trap version I built a trap with a 100pF BIG door-knob and wound 
a coil and resonated the trap for 3.650 MHz, a frequency I would never 
operate on. I chose that frequency so I could switch in a capacitor to 
resonate the antenna to 3.800 MHz. That antenna was in the shape 
of an inverted "L" between two tall pine trees. That antenna worked 
much better that the first.

 Now I have two separate antennas for 80/160 from the same feed point, 
the top of the 80 is separated by about 8' from the 160. It seems to work 
best of the three antennas and much easier to tune. 

I would not hesitate going back to the trap antenna but based on the 
location of the trap near the tree, squirrels made short work of it.

I can scan and send my diagrams and notes for the trap (from Oct 
1998 CQ) 

73, Mike WA5POK