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Topband: 'Hairpin' matching

To: "160 reflector" <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: 'Hairpin' matching
From: "Tom Boucher" <tom@telemetry.demon.co.uk>
Reply-to: Tom Boucher <tom@telemetry.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 19:52:33 +0100
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Just to add a comment on this thread: 

I do not use an inductor to match my inverted 'L', just a capacitor from coax 
centre/bottom of wire to the radial point. Further I do not use big wide space 
'toast-rack' Cs, but tiny ceramic ones rated at 6.3KV which will handle very 
decent amounts of power and are readily available over here. They seem to 
handle the high currents at the bottom of the quarter wave 'L' quite happily.

I measure the impedance at resonance of the antenna without any matching 
network, then use 
www.sandiego.edu/~ekim/e194rfs01/jwmatcher2.html

to calculate the L-network values needed. Fit the parallel capacitor then 
lengthen the antenna slightly to bring it back to the required frequency. This 
provides the inductance necessary for the L-network. 



Needless to say, your MFJ, or Palstar ZM-30 in my case, antenna analyser will 
probably give you the wrong sign for the reactive part of the antenna's 
impedance. This had me going for a long time before I realised the problem! 
Check this by moving the analyser frequency LF from resonance and the impedance 
should show -jX (capacitive). Moving the analyser HF from resonance should show 
inductive reactance (+jX).



My inverted 'L' needs 1600pF to give me 50 + j0.



I have also made switched L-networks to successfully resonate the same antenna 
on some other bands.



73

Tom G3OLB
_________________
Topband Reflector

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