[TowerTalk] Improving my 80 meter antenna

[N6CW at aol.com]

Greetings,

Currently I am using hastily installed antenna for 80 meters. I have been 
using it for 4 years and it works fairly well for both domestic and DX contacts. 
Actually, I have been amazed at some of the DX I have worked. The antenna is 
cut as an 80 meter dipole, 130 feet long. One end starts at ground level and 
goes vertical for 40 feet, in a tree. At the 40 foot level it  starts going 
horizontal, sloping downwards, and ends up about 8 feet off the ground at the far 
end. The feed point is in the center and about 20 feet off the ground.

I have been thinking of trying an inverted L for improved performance. But it 
seems to me that I would still be using 40 feet of vertical wire + the 30 
feet or so of horizontal wire, and putting the other half into a marginal ground 
system. My current antenna is basically the same thing, in my mind, being fed 
at the top of the vertical section and the other half of the antenna being the 
ground side but radiating in the air. Is this a valid assumption?

So, am I going to gain anything here by using the Inverted L? My eventual 
goal is to make an inverted L that will work both on 80 and 160. 
The upside would be using half the amount of wire required for the 160 
antenna. I live on a small city lot but probably could put in a fair ground system 
if the L would be an overall better performer. 

Terry/N6CW