Topband: Inverted L - newbie questions

[Wes]

How many high-powered BC stations do you have around?

Wes  N7WS

On 8/21/2019 8:55 AM, N4ZR wrote:
> I just put up an inverted L, with a vertical length of about 60 feet, and a 
> total of 135 feet.  It is fed through 16 turns of RG-400 on a ferrite core at 
> the base. There are, as yet, no radials.
>
> Because I was impatient to see what was going on, I grounded the shield to a 
> single copper-plated ground rod and connected my MFJ259B. I expected a high R 
> value, and I got one - 112-122 ohms. But surprisingly (to me), lowest SWR was 
> at 2.070 MHz, and X remained at zero over quite a wide range - all the way 
> down to about 1.7 MHz.
>
> Is this all to be expected?  I plan to put down at least minimum radials in 
> the next few days, and would expect the R value to drop as I do so. Am I 
> off-base?
>