[TowerTalk] 160m 1/4 wave vertical help needed

[AB5MM]

Fellow Top Banders,

I have a matching problem with a Rohn 25G, 160m ¼ wave vertical and am 
hoping some of you can help me out.

<> The tower is 124'-9" in over all height.  The tower bottom insulator 
is located at 4'-3" above ground level thus making the vertical radiator 
a total of 120'-6". All guy wires are insulated from tower as well as 
being broken up throughout their length. <> 

For now, the ground radial system is made of 22 each, 125' long, 14ga. 
copper wire.  I plan on installing another 14 radials next weekend.  
Total number of radials will be 36 at 10 degree spacing.  The soil here 
in the Sabine River Valley bottomland has a "good rating" of 15mS/m. <> 

My friend (K5ZO) and I have tried every thing we can think of to get 
this antenna to resonate anywhere in the 1.8 to 2.0 MHz range.  We've 
tried both low pass and high pass "L" networks, a high pass "T" network, 
low pass "Pi" network, and a parallel inductor with capacitor, in series 
with the center conductor. <> 

The best match we were able to achieve was with a 500pF cap in series 
with center conductor.  This gave us a 1.7/1 swr at 2.113 MHz. (R=64 & 
X=31) All matching efforts have been made right at the tower feedpoint.

   1. Is the tower too short?
   2. Do we need to place a capacity hat at the top?
   3. Would a short stinger out the top (for added height) help?
   4. What about all the various matching schemes we've tried?  Are we
      missing something here?

<>Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Please feel 
free to post to the group as I feel this information would be helpful to 
others as well. <> 

Thanks & 73, <> 

Steve AB5MM
ab5mm at 9plus.net