[TowerTalk] 80 meter vertical question

[Jim Brown]

On 3/20/2014 4:40 PM, john nistico wrote:
> I have put up a 80 wire vertical in some trees seeing I do not have a tower. I cut it 62ft6in so it should be on 3.750 however it seems long and the swr is 1:1 at 3550 or so. I have 10 radials and my longer version worked just fine. Any feedbck would be helpful.

Hi John,

If you have 1:1 SWR with a resonant quarter wave vertical, you have a 
poor radial system. The resistance at resonance of a quarter wave is 
about 35 ohms with an ideal radial system. That means you have 15 ohms 
of loss in the radials. 1:1 SWR is NOT a design objective for a quarter 
wave vertical! Instead, I would work on improving the radial system. 
Either a LOT more on-ground radials, or raise the radials as high as you 
can.

73, Jim K9YC