Hey Don, Thanks for the reply. I forgot to mention in the first post that I used this last year in a slightly different spot and it was fed with 33' of open feedline. I fed it directly from my K2 without a balun and it tuned up great 80m - 10m. To get 1:1 SWR on 20m I added 6' of feedline.
After doing some reading on the L.B. Cebik site, I realized that the 33' feedline would put me at the half wave mark on 40m. So, I attached another 10' for a total of 43' as recommended. The K3 had a hard time tuning this up so I attached the balun to help things out and it did from a SWR standpoint. I was not very happy with that since I know that baluns can be quite lossy. Not to mention I was able to get the previous incarnation to tune up with my K2 without a balun. Unfortunately, it is vacation season around here and I'm working a lot of extra shifts, so my time is limited over the next few weeks. I would like to try this same config with my K2 just for a good comparison. Plus, I'm a little confused as to how it seemed to work so well in that configuration. Probably just dumb luck on my part ;-) I know I should also model this thing in EZNEC, but have not taken the time to learn how to use it yet. Seems a little daunting when I look at it. Thanks again Don, Dave W8FGU > Dave, > > Yes, the law of reciprocity applies on both TX and RX, but the K3 has a > better receiver, so it is entirely possible for you to hear ones that > you cannot work. His signal report to you indicates that is likely the > case. > > Try your antenna without the balun - you should not notice heating at 5 > watts unless there is considerable loss (maybe it was the sun shining on > the balun :-) ). Usually in multi-band QRP field operations, a slightly > unbalanced antenna radiation pattern is not a problem. If you end up > with hot RF on the chassis, you can alter the feedline length to bring > the impedance down and make the antenna easier to feed. Your current > radiator plus feedline might have a high impedance at the rig end on 40 > meters and up (the total feedline plus one leg of the antenna is near a > half wave on 40m). > > 73, > Don W3FPR > _______________________________________________ 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
