Ha ha, that's a good one, I too have a 20dB callsign. Not always but I'm
sure on occasion it helps. I often get 10 to 20 over nine reports
running 100 watts to a 2 element (Force 12 C3 @ 24m) from Europe when
more powerful stations from there make only 5-6 to 5-7 here.
Martin, HS0ZED
On 11/10/2019 19:32, Wes wrote:
I don't suppose your callsign has anything to do with the success of
your antennas.:-)
Wes N7WS
On 10/10/2019 10:54 PM, Vic Rosenthal wrote:
Things I’ve learned by experience:
In 63 years as a ham, I’ve had several :-) HF antennas. The ones that
gave me the greatest overall satisfaction have been balanced,
horizontal antennas. The worst have been verticals with inadequate
radial systems or low random-length wires. Inverted Vs with angles
less than 90 degrees between the wires are not much good, either.
There is no simpler way to make an efficient multiband antenna than
to feed a dipole of at least 1/2 wavelength at the lowest frequency
with open wire line. With some care in choosing the length of the
line, a 1/4 wave dipole can work almost as well. I’ve worked over 300
countries on CW in the last 5 years on the bands from 40-10m with a
10m long rotary dipole, in an urban area (it is up 35m on a building
and I run a kW, I admit). I regularly bust pileups on 40m with it.
1:1 baluns work to feed open wire lines, but can become inefficient
in some circumstances and heat up. It’s possible to solve this by
compensating for reactance with a pair of capacitors or inductors
before the balun, but a better solution is a true balanced antenna
tuner.
“True Ladder Line” is a good product, but it’s easy to make your own,
and you can use no. 12 (2 mm) wire for lower loss.
Sometimes a 4:1 balun may give a better match, but it will be less
efficient (heat) and do a poorer job of keeping RF out of the shack.
Nothing has worked better for me at cleaning up RF in the shack than
an old Johnson Matchbox, a true balanced tuner.
Victor 4X6GP
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