Topband: Antenna from NCJ, Murphy, and New Configuration

[Mark Adams]

Hi Gang,

Last week I posted a note soliciting comments on the NE0U antenna that
appeared in the March/April 2011 NCJ. The subject had 169 instead of 160 as
you may recall. I got back a bunch of responses that you need lots of
radials. The article clearly states that you should use ONE radial on the
ground and a good ferrite balun. I have lots of radials by my tower where
the 160M inverted L has lived for few seasons, but I need that halyard and
space for a WARC antenna.

So up over the ~85' walnut goes the spud gun projectile and I'm in business
for the 127' wire. The radial was easy and I had a nice feedpoint to use.
But Murphy dictated that my best SWR would be 5:1 at 1.960 MHz. I tried
lots of small mods but nothing worked. ARGHH!!!  I did not want to waste
such a perfect shot over the tree, so in desperation I decided to try an
elevated feedpoint and put the single radial at 8' running SW. Wow, 2:1 SWR
on the first try. Since the radial was cut to 127', I added 7' and the SWR
went down to 1.6:1. So I added another 134' radial and the results stayed
the same. Oh, the balun for these efforts is a Comtek 1:1.

An on air check with K2ZR about 15 miles away indicate the obvious. The
dipole is better close in.

On to using the Skimmer at VE7CC. The real close in reports were 1-6 dB
better on the dipole while the medium distance reports werethe same. BUT,
with the Inverted-Elevated-L, I now get reports from WA7LNW  which does not
hear me on the dipole.

The bottom line: I accomplished my goal of getting a vertical going on 160
and freeing up some tower space. Can't wait to see how this plays in the
upcoming 160M contests. QRP of course!

73,
Mark K2QO
K2 #543
FN03ra