[TowerTalk] Vertical LW vs. Vertical

[Jim Brown]

On 4/10/2014 5:30 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:
> HI All
>
> Is there a lot of difference between a vertical long wire antenna and 
> a regular vertical GP?

Not much.  Just the angle of the dangle. :)

>
> Last year when camping I used a 65 foot piece of wire up into a tree, 
> hooked directly to the output of my tuner.  I had one long 
> counterpoise and the tuner connected to a ground that I drove INTO the 
> ground..  It seemed to work pretty well on all the bands.

A counterpoise and/or radials are a GOOD thing. A connection to the 
earth does NOT make an antenna work better, because the earth is really 
a very large resistor. One of the functions of a good radial system is 
to SHIELD the antenna from the earth.
>
> Not having any modeling software here, what I was interested in is if 
> the vertical LW works different than a vertical GP.

The length of the vertical (as a fraction of a wavelength affects the 
vertical pattern.  Study what happens to a 43 ft vertical on the  bands 
above 20M to see what I'm talking about.

73, Jim K9YC