[TowerTalk] links to various hf antennas needed please

[Chuck Counselman]

At 2:32 PM -0500 6/23/03, Kenny wrote:
>I have been looking for all the information on the web I can about a good
>wire antenna....

It's a jungle, or a minefield, out there.  A whole lotta snake oil 
being peddled.  OTOH, you'll find a lot of good reading at 
<http://www.cebik.com/>


>If I mounted a dipole I could get about 200ft max "100 ft each
>side" in my yard.

That's plenty of room.

>However it wouldn't be that high, maybe 30 35 ft  and 20
>ft on the ends.

That's not too bad.  Plenty of hams (including me) have made DXCC 
with wire antennas that high.  Mine is a doublet (a wire fed at its 
center with 600-ohm ladder line), overall length = 30 meters, of 
which the middle 20 meters is horizontal and 5 meters hangs 
vertically at each end.  If you're interested I'll email you plots of 
its radiation pattern for all bands 80 through 10 meters.

>I though about buying a sgc smartuner or ldg remote tuner
>and just putting up as much wire as I could and use it that way or  ?  So
>any links.comments, or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Balanced antennas with balanced feedlines are best for HF, IMO. 
Since those tuners are unbalanced, you'll also need a balun.  I'd 
recommend a 4:1 current balun.  Putting up as much wire as you can is 
OK up to a point.  I wouldn't make a straight doublet longer than 
1.25 wavelengths, though, to avoid putting deep nulls in its pattern. 
However, the trick of dropping about 5 meters vertically at each end 
(as I have) can fill in the nulls.

73 de Chuck, W1HIS