[TowerTalk] 80M Inverted V - CW and SSB

[Jim Thomson]

From: Doug Scribner
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] 80M Inverted V - CW and SSB

After completing my newest tower, 66 feet of Rohn 45,
I added an 80 Meter Inverted V @ 62 feet. 

I'd like to find a quick way to switch between the CW and
Phone portions of the band. I know I could just set it for
SSB and then add a short section to each leg for CW and
that works for dedicated contests but is a little inconvenient
for everyday use.

Short of using a tuner are there any suggestions?

TU...

Doug – K1ZO

##  Sure,  use  a fan dipole.    Build one inverted  vee for say 3820 khz..and another one for say 3525 khz. 
Join at the feedpoint.   Spread the far ends apart by apex 1-2 feet.    Then you will  have a dead flat swr 
in both the CW and SSB portion of the  band.   Simple, flat swr on 2 x feqs, and no stubs to mess with. 
Use 10 ga wire...and they will each be really broad.   All you are doing is stagger tuning each inverted vee.
You could also use 3 x vees, cut to 3 x diff freqs..and tune the entire band.   

##  Or use a single inverted vee.....and  cut it for 3650 khz....... then use  BIG ga wire...like 6 or 8 ga. 

##  For you folks with 80 foot and higher towers.... the shortened rotary dipole works good too.  Capacity hats,
aka.. T bars..that resemble a 10m ele..are installed  half way out, or a bit further on each side of the shorty dipole.
The balance of the loading can be done with a seco systems tornado drive.  It’s a motor driven  pair of compressible
one quarter inch tubing coils.. made of plastic coated copper tubing.   Uh can be varied  in a 2:1 ratio.   Like 6-12 uh 
per coil.  
A simple 5 turn tubing coil is installed across the feedpoint.....and is the  helical hairpin.   SWR is then dead flat from
3400-4100 khz.   14 db FS on dx signals.  

Jim   VE7RF