[TowerTalk] Inverted L for 160 Meters

[Gene Smar]

Mike:

     Two questions for you to consider:

1.   Have you played around with the wire length to approach a better SWR?  

2.   Have you considered shunt-feeding your tower?  

     No matter which way you go, put in more radials.  With radials that short you should approach the point of diminishing returns (leveling off of gain improvement) at somewhere around 30 or so radials.  


73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F


From: Mike Brown <mike at k9mi.com>
Date: 2007/10/15 Mon PM 05:57:59 CDT
To: TowerTalk Reflector <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Inverted L for 160 Meters

I could get carried away here, but I'll try to keep it short. The tallest 
object I have on the lot is the 40' tower with a TH3 on top. The furthest 
standoff is about 5' from the tower, with a pulley near the end of it. I 
have in the past taken the extra length needed and played "zig zag" with it. 
The SWR was around 2:1 and while not great, it did get me on the air. 
Radials, I know I'm way off the mark, but I'm very restricted there. I think 
I used around 15 30-50 ft radials.

Now for the question! Would I be better off using a loading coil just after 
the antenna goes from vertical to horizontal, keeping the wire straight. Or 
is zig zag going to be my best bet? I have used the zig zag and while this 
is a very compromised antenna, it does get me on the band. To keep from 
trashing the reflector, you can email direct to mike at k9mi.com

Tnx.... 73 Mike, K9MI



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