Greg,
The Hytower is a great piece of metal for playing with
variations of vertical and L configurations where
space is at a premium. The original Hygain coil at the
base was a disaster as ti flamed the main whip
insulators at about 200w of RF. The MK-160A fixes the
problem but would appear to create mostly a horizontal
probably high angle antenna.
I purchased a used Hytower a few years ago. My first
variation wasa to get rid of the insulators that burn
up so easily. I replaces them with plastic plumbing
pieces that provided a better electrical and
mechanical arrangement. I modified the whip to place a
coil and whip on top of the antenna and retain the 50'
height. As a coil loaded antenna it had all of the bad
charastics like a useful bandwidth of about 15 khz. I
got around the BW problem with a remote tuner
consisting of a motor driven vaccuum variable.
The next variation I'm planning is to remove the top
loading coil and modify the whip with WW2 tank whip to
extend to about 70-80'. I will make a very low loss
coil to be located at the top of the tower between the
tower and whip.
All of this is for fun. The real improvement in any
configuration is reduce the ground losses i.e. improve
the radial system. I think any configuration that
reduces the horizontal radiation will assist you in
getting to the DX. That could include a "T"
arrangement at the top as well. I'm thinking of adding
a "T" element to my big whip arrangement as another
variation to try.
Addressing te other bands at the sam time can be
tricky. If your willing to put in a 2nd feedline, with
my variation you could keep the whip as the 160
element, match and feed it independently from the
tower
Seasons Greetings to all.
W7MY
Greg Chartrand
-----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 08:25:23 -0600 (GMT-06:00)
From: deuhs@earthlink.net
To: w8ji@contesting.com, Topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Repost: 160m balun
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Message: 2
Thanks Tom.
We little pistols need all the help we can get. Are
there any
easy indicators that the choke is working? QSO's? :)
If I could ask another question: I'm running the
Hy-Tower with the
MK-160A 'L' add-on kit. Any idea if my entire
vertical radiator works on
160 (kind of like a sideways T) or is the vertical
portion up to where
the 40m coil/wire addition is connected (at 24 feet).
It seems to me that it would be more efficient to run
a 14 or 16 ga
wire from the base of the vertical supported
(insulated) by the Hy-tower
as high as it will support (probably around the 45
foot level) and then
out horizonally.
On another note, SWR on 160 with the current
configuration is a bit
under 2-1 at 1830, which makes sense. Is their a way
to tune out the
reactance without effecting the other bands? I use my
tuner now that is in
my FT-1000MP V; but would a remote tuner at the
antenna work better?
(my initial thoughts are that it probalby has little
impact on the
overall signal, and that the loss at 160m is minimal,
but I may be wrong)
Thanks,
Greg
K0PJ/9
Hy-tower vert with MK-160 add-on, 4000 feet of
radials.
PS -conditions have been poor in WI this year,
hopefully they will pick
up soon, but its tough for signals to get
through the aurora belt.
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