Hello Todd, my experiences were pretty limited, but I would suggest you about 150' of wire (to 100' height, the rest horizontally), with air variable capacitor in series with the wire to cancel inductive reactance. Some 500 - 800 pF would be OK, It will tune antenna nicely without any need for external tuners and such a stuff. Beware that inverted L is noisy antenna and you will need receiving one (ones). And do not expect huge EU pile-ups with your 100W, HI
73, Mirko, S57AD V V pon., 17. dec. 2018 ob 21:55 je oseba Todd Goins <[email protected]> napisala: > Hello, > > Yes, I'm a 160m newbie but have been licensed and active since 1990. I have > CW/Phone experience on HF but I'm just getting my feet wet on 160m. I > participated in the ARRL 160 CW contest and had a great time. I will also > be particiapating in the Stew and the CQ contests in January. I'd like > some opinions or thoughs on making my modest antenna a little better. I > have worked and confirmed 40 states in a couple of weeks on CW and FT-8 but > the DX (both hearing and transmitting to by PSK Reporter stats) has been > elusive. > > So, here's my setup. I made an inverted L using a DX Engineering 43' > vertical and I attached a 90' horizontal wire (that slopes up a little) to > the top. I have a radial field of 60-70 radials with varying lengths from > 125' to around 40' with the overall average being about 60' in length. I > have a remote tuner at the base of the vertical. Also, I'm only running 100 > watts, so that may be an issue. Furthest I've completed and confirmed a QSO > is South Africa but nothing to Europe. I am in the Seattle, WA area. > Overall, I guess I'm happy it works at all but I'm ready for some ideas on > improvement. > > My situation/question is this: I could, with minimal effort, attach a > vertical wire to a tree limb at about 100' height right over the existing > radial field. That would then replace the DX Engineering vertical and I > would run a horizontal capacitance hat wire from the top of the 100' tall > wire. My plan would be to use the existing radial field, disconnect the > current vertical and connect the new wire to the tuner/radial field > instead. > > Would you wise and experienced Topbanders expect any performance increase > from the increased vertical length or should I just stick with what I have > now? Also, if I do this, what length of wire would be recommended for the > top horizontal section? > > Any ideas or thoughts would be great. Be gentle... > > 73, > Todd - NR7RR > _________________ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > -- Mirko S57AD _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
