I have a question I'd like to ask of you 160m antenna gurus. My
present 70 foot shunt fed tower 160m system has two sets of guys. One set is
at the 67 foot mark and is broken up with insulators about 10 feet down from
the top of each guy. The other set is at the 30 foot mark and IS NOT broken
up by insulators. The antenna seems to work well. Not W8JI well but much
better than the half sloper I was using before. It is sometimes 5-6 S units
better with the VK6HD/VK6VZ path in the mornings. I am using insulated
radials laying on the ground and am at 24 right now. The bandwidth is
awfully wide. I can use this antenna with a 1.3:1 swr from 1800-1999. The
lowest swr occurs at 1830 and is 1:1 on the swr meter of the FT1000mp and
increases to 1.3:1 at 1807 and 1845. I believe the wide bandwidth is due to
the grounded guys and is probably hurting my efficiency quite a bit. Now for
my question. What improvement in performance will be had if I break up the
bottom guy wires with insulators close to the tower? Any guesstimates as to
the efficiency of this system in its present configuration? I want to make
sure the effort expended in breaking up the guys is worth the effort. 73 Ken
N4UK
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