I am in the process of building a 40 meter 1/4 wave vertical. My hopes for this antenna is that when the conditions favor vertical antennas as opposed to a dipole, that it will help me to work in to the far East as my dipole does not. I understand that a dense radial field is necessary for good results and that the far field which I have no control is a factor. My plan is to use 64 insulated radials as close to resonant as possible, buried a few inches below soil. I thought of using ladder line as the radiator, cutting one side for 40 and the other for 30 meters supported by a catenary line. If that does not prove out, I have aluminum tubing which to make a 1/4 wave for 40. Anyone have any comments pro or con for my project? So far, I have the pipe in the ground, and the radials cut ready to attach to the DX Engineering radial plate.
I have K3 #1366 and really like this radio. A lot to offer in such a small package. 73. Roy Davis - WK4Y Richmond VA ----- Original Message ----- From: "WILLIS COOKE" <[email protected]> To: "James Apple" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>; "Darwin, Keith" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 6:12 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] 43' Vertical and the K2 tuner > > Keith, in theory the 5/8 vertical should be 3 db stronger than the 1/4 > vertical installed in the same position. A ground plane on top of a house > could easily be as good or better than a 5/8 wave ground mounted and > radiating into the side of the house and some trees. 3 db is about 1/2 S > unit anyway, so it will not be a large difference. You are correct about > the far field conductivity being very important in how a vertical antenna > will play, whether it is mounted on top of a tower or house or ground > mounted. The radials are most important to bring up the radiation > efficiency, the far field is most important for the take off angle. > > The 43 foot vertical will have a higher radiation resistance than a > shorter vertical for all bands, making it easier to get the efficiency up. > It will still be lower than 50 ohms for 160, 80 and 60 meters, about 50 > ohms for 40 and higher for the upper frequencies. I don't have one > because I have a 3 element SteppIR with the 30/40 dipole trombone at 21 > meters. I don't think the 43 foot vertical will play as well, but they do > play well. I have worked several of the Zero-Five offering and they all > play well. I would expect the DXE, Hygain and MFJ to play well also, but > they are newer and I don't know anyone who has one. All still need a good > ground plane and will play much better with conductive soil. > > Willis 'Cookie' Cooke > K5EWJ > > > --- On Sun, 3/15/09, Darwin, Keith <[email protected]> wrote: > >> From: Darwin, Keith <[email protected]> >> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] 43' Vertical and the K2 tuner >> To: "James Apple" <[email protected]>, [email protected] >> Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 2:39 PM >> A few years ago, I was really on the 5/8 vertical bandwagon. >> I thought it was the cat's meow. The problem was that >> real world A/B testing did NOT show it to be any better than >> a 1/4 wave vert. >> >> I had a 5/8 wave vert for 15 meters. Ground mounted over >> 16 radials. An ATU at the base took care of the small >> impedance mismatch and RG-213 carried the signal to the rig. >> Hot stuff - or so I thought. >> >> I also had a 1/4 wave ground plane (4 radials) on the roof >> of my single story house. It was fed with RG-58. I spent a >> lot of time with an A/B switch listening to both antennas. >> You'd think the 5/8 with it's mondo low-angle >> radiation pattern would walk all over the 1/4 wave but it >> DID NOT. DX signals as the band was just opening or closing >> were sometimes stronger on the 5/8, other times on the 1/4. >> There was no clear winner. >> >> It was years before I found the answer. >> >> Apparently, that wonderful low angle radiation that we want >> out of the 5/8 wave antenna depends HEAVILY on the ground >> conductivity many, many wavelengths away from the antenna. >> Far out of the reach of any ground radial system, poor soil >> conductivity is sucking the low angle radiation down to near >> zero. Sure, over salt water it is fabulous, but for the >> vast majority, it just doesn't pan out that way. >> >> So, for "normal" soil, it seems the best height >> is something less than 1/2 wave. >> >> I run a 33' vertical with a Hustler 80M resonator on >> top. It resonates on 80 and 40 and does pretty well on >> those two bands. It also delivers the goods on 30 meters >> due to the remote tuner. On 20 meters and higher it >> isn't really all that impressive. >> >> - Keith N1AS - >> - K3 711 - >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] on behalf of James >> Apple >> Sent: Sun 3/15/2009 9:26 AM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [Elecraft] 43' Vertical and the K2 tuner >> >> After the ice storm of 2009, I'm looking for an new >> antenna. I've >> been considering the 43' verticals by DXE,HyGain and >> MFJ. But I'm not >> sure if my K2 tuner will have the range needed. The DXE >> site has a >> warning about internal tuners. Anyone using a K2 and a >> 43' vertical ? >> how's it play ? >> >> Thanks in Advance >> >> - Jim (WB1DOG) >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> Post: mailto:[email protected] >> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: >> http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> Post: mailto:[email protected] >> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: >> http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. 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