FYI Paul, W0RW asked me to test the new Elecraft T1 mini antenna tuner with a 10-ft. whip and 13-ft. drag line. I didn't have that kind of whip so I tested it with a 10-ft length of thick (12-gauge) stranded insulated copper wire taped to one of those black, expandable plastic fish poles in a vertical position. I don't think those poles have detrimental electrical or RF properties (fill me in if I'm wrong).
The feed point of this vertical wire was 5 feet off the ground. I didn't use the 6-inch feed line that Paul said he was using -- I just connected directly to the bottom of the 10-ft. wire. The 13-ft. drag line consisted of the same kind of wire, and was simply laid on the grass. I used my FT-817 running 5 watts and the Elecraft T1 tuner. I used a CW signal for testing. The results using an Elecraft 4:1 balun were very good. For every band (looking at both the high and low ends of the broad bands) from 50 MHz down through 7 MHz (excluding 60m where I can't broadcast) the SWR was 1:1. On the high end of the 3 MHz band the SWR was between 1:1 and 1:2. I couldn't obtain a decent SWR on the low end of the 3 MHz band. I couldn't load on 160m. All the above tunes were accomplished "first time." Without using a balun, I again obtained 1:1 SWRs from 50 MHz down through 14 MHz. On 10 MHz I found an SWR between 1:1 and 1:2. I couldn't load on the bands below 10 MHz. Looks like that 10-ft. vertical and the 13-ft. drag line work very well with the T1 and the balun. -- Bil KD6JUI _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
