On 12/17/2018 9:10 AM, Gary Kohtala - K7EK via Topband wrote:
Short the braid and center conductor and attach that to your tuner single wire connection.. It will work much better than connecting only one side. This willgive you a top loaded vertical or semi vertical. I've done it with100w without issues of RFI. Higher power might be a different story,depending on the physical placement of things in and around your shack.Having a decent ground
If you feed a dipole with a balanced line, then shorting it together at the bottom properly turns the antenna into a T top vertical. If you feed a dipole with coax possibly including a balun, the scheme you describe doesn't really work like the balanced line system. Shorting the braid and center conductor at the bottom is only really effective if the electrical length of the coax is a multiple of a half wavelength, and only if there is no balun at the feedpoint. If the coax is an odd multiple of a quarter wave, then the short at the bottom does nothing. The leg connected the center conductor will not be driven. There are so many random variables that any given antenna might sort of work by chance. 73 Rick N6RK _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
