Topband: Beginner question

[w2pm at aol.com]

>>>>>>


>>Under the guidance of "any antenna is better than no antenna," and
"verticals radiate poorly in all directions," and "just put something up and
get on the air," I am running an off-center-fed 80-10 dipole from Buckmaster
on 160 using the rig tuner in my 570.  I know the SWR is such that the
feedline is radiating.  

Question: should I even bother asking the XYL for a Cushcraft MA160V for
Christmas?  I have the MA8040V already, and it has 4 radials for 80.  I
heard that the base is the same for both antennas, so I could get by with
the MA8040V ground pole and just insert the MA160V.  Otherwise, I can just
keep radiating with the OCF dipole.

I can do an inverted L, but I don't have any room for radial fields at this
stage...and I would like to re-use what I already have in place.

Thanks for the guidance.

Mark Lunday
WD4ELG
wd4elg at arrl.net
http://wd4elg.net



 
W2PM Replies:



One easy thing you can do is feed your OCF dipole as a Marconi against ground -- simply tie the center conductor and shield together at the shack end
get a good ground and fire away.  Your whole feedline becomes a vertical antenna with the flatop acting as a tophat to some degree.  Ive done this myself some years ago
with a G5RV at 50 center height and it worked reasonably well for low-grade, non exotic DX (IE  eastcoast to EU).



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