Topband: My 160m antenna

Jim Miller WB5OXQ in Waco wb5oxq at grandecom.net
Sun Feb 15 13:16:51 EST 2009


I am currently using a alpha delta twin sloper for 160-80-40m.  With a lot of tinkering I have made it work fairly well on 160 and it is amazingly broadband.  The 160m wire has a coil in its midpoint which I believe is to make it operate on 40 and 160 and to make the leg shorter than if it were 1/4 long at 160.
This being said, I wonder if I remove the coil and make the leg 1/4 wave long at 160 if I would improve my reception on 160 or wreck the whole antenna.  I know I would loose the 40m part but I have a 1/2 wave dipole on 40m anyway.
The antenna is mounted on a 52' tall tower with a 7 element trapless triband antenna on top and another 2m beam 10' above that.  The sloper is mounted 2' below the hf beam and the 160m wire runs due south to a tie off point 30' above the ground.
Right now I am getting best resonance at 1.880 with a reflected power of 10 watts with 1000 forward.  I can go 50kc up or down and the reflected power only goes up to 25 watts with 1000 forward so that is not bad in my opinion.
I just wonder what would I gain by changing to a full length 1/4 wave wire.
WB5OXQ


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