[UK-CONTEST] Antenna advice

[Gerard Lynch]

Unless there is a freak storm making access to my roof dangerous, I plan to 
be QRV again from Saturday (yayhay)!

Earlier this year I had a doublet up and have no plans to change that basic 
setup.  I am wondering about the length though.  I had cut it as a half-wave 
at the bottom of 80 metres and while it seemed to work fine, it didn't 
particularly like having topband RF shoved through it and would often cut 
power for no apparent reason, well no apparent reason other than I was using 
a quarter wave dipole!

I reckon I can stretch the length out to about 65 to 70 metres on that roof. 
My question is - will getting it closer, but not fully, a half-wavelength on 
top band significantly increase the efficiency and if so, will that have any 
negative impact on higher bands.

73

Gerry G0RTN
Vanity Page at http://www.gerrylynch.co.uk
"In days of old, when ops were bold, and sidebands not invented,
The word would pass, by pounding brass, and all were well contented."