Topband: What ever happened to the 160 meter "Z" antenna?

[Tom W8JI]

> Rick,  I think it had more to do with getting something out of the shack 
> window with the tuner inside.  I also think it had more to getting the 
> current maximum at the top of the pole.  The OT's used to tell me they 
> just taped a #47 bulb and a small loop of wire at the top and fed some 
> power 20 watts or so at night and then trimmed the far end for maximum 
> brilliance to try and get the current maximum at the top of the slant 
> wire.  With some vertical component and horizontal cancellation I can not 
> see how this was a *bad* antenna for beginners on TB.

That was an antenna popular in the early 1960's, I tried one myself back 
then.

It appeared everywhere as an improvement to a vertical or inverted L 
antenna.  It was ideally out 65 horizontally, up 65 vertically, and out 130 
horizontally. If the vertical section was lower height, the low horizontal 
was extended.

The idea was to get current at the top of the vertical section, and enough 
length on a horizontal single wire feed to make it a 1/2 wave, but it was a 
bad idea. Mine was way down in signal strength locally on groundwave over a 
base loaded vertical. It improved greatly when turned into an inverted L 
with current maximum at the base.

As Rick says, it acted more like a bent dipole with one end 6 feet off the 
ground for 70 feet or more.

73 Tom