Topband: Half slopers ???

[Ed Sawyer]

Are we talking half slopers or quarter wave slopers here.  I have a 70 ft
tower and had very poor performance with quarter wave slopers on either band
(80/160).  On 80 I tried a resonant roughly 65 ft wire with the shield
bonded to the tower at the top.  For 160 added a loading coil near the
bottom.  Very poor for me.  Soil is very poor ground conductivity here in
VT.

 

I now use half wave sloping dipoles in 3 directions on 80M (70 ft long with
center spaced loading coils fed in the middle) and they work FB!  I have
many times in contests worked a guy first call on one and gotten a ??? on
the other.  I see an S unit difference on the different directions.  

 

I think for 160M, your only chance with a 50 ft tower is to try and shunt
feed it with a full tower length shunt drop wire and tuning system at the
bottom of the shunt.  It could work well from CO if you are near the ocean
and have decent conductivity soil.

 

73

 

Ed  N1UR