Depending on the exact configuration and surrounding antennas and objects
you may see some high angle radiation on 80 meters.
I use what I call a fan vertical. I have 80 and 160 meter wire elements
sharing a common feed point. The 80 meter element is 62 feet tall and the
160 meter element is 129 feet long with a 62 foot vertical section. The
elements are supported by an oak tree. I use the DX Engineering relaxed #14
stranded wire for the elements and the radials #6 solid bare copper wire.
Also connected to the radials is 300 feet of #6 solid bare copper wire
buried 3" deep that encircles my house. Attached are six eight foot ground
rods, plus the three eight foot ground rods for the power mains, cable TV
and telephone. The ground rods do nothing for collection of RF and are tied
in per NEC standards for lightning protection.
It's fed with 80 feet of RG-213 and sits over twenty five 64 foot long
radials and one 129 foot radial, all stapled to the ground surface. The 160
meter element is self resonant between 1851-1872 kHz with a VSWR of 1.5:1
and the 80 meter element at 3759-3946 kHz with a VSWR of 1.1:1.
Do the two elements interact with each other in some form or fashion? Sure,
but I've had great success in working DX and CW/phone contesting with the
160 meter element and great success with the 80 meter element working DX and
contesting on CW/phone and RTTY.
73 & God Bless,
Thomas F. Giella W4HM
Lakeland, FL, USA
thomasfgiella@gmail.com
W4HM's Amateur & SWL Autobiography: http://www.w4hm.org
---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection
is active.
http://www.avast.com
_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
|