[TowerTalk] 80M on a Small Lot

[Jim Brown]

On 5/24/2011 7:58 AM, Charlie at thegallos.com wrote:
> What ideas do you have for 80m?

Hi Charlie,

One thing that CAN work on a limited lot like yours for 80M (and even 
160M, but not as well) is a top-loaded wire that's sort of vertical.  On 
my Chicago city lot, I had a 100 ft long dipole with loading coils that 
resonated it on 80M and 40M.  It worked pretty well as a dipole, but I 
also loaded it on 80M and 160M as a long wire by tying both sides of the 
feedline together (it was parallel wire line) and using a big wrought 
iron fence as a counterpoise.  On 80M that worked better than loading it 
as a dipole, and it was my only antenna for 160M. There are photos of my 
funny looking Chicago antenna farm on my website in the power point that 
talks about antennas for limited space.

   http://audiosystemsgroup.com/publish.htm

So you probably don't have a big wrought iron fence, but maybe there's 
other big metal you could use as a counterpoise, or you can lay a bunch 
of radials on the ground. My buddy, KK9H uses the HVAC ducts in his 
house as a counterpoise, and I've worked him twice from CA on 160M using 
that antenna!

So if I were you, I would try loading whatever that funny dipole of 
yours is as a long wire and see how it works. Anything you do like this 
demands a good antenna tuner.  The Ten Tec 229 and 238 tuners are the 
best I know of.

73, Jim K9YC