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Re: Topband: What have I done?

To: Don Kirk <wd8dsb@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: What have I done?
From: Carl Braun <Carl.Braun@lairdtech.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 22:56:18 +0000
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Thanks for the response and the calculations Don. Lots of offline responses to 
my query.

The antennas use 90 radials 40' to 150' with the average at 66'

Your option B is the way I configured the L network and your numbers are very 
close to mine.

The second variable cap was set aside to use the smaller one.

I'm going to try and roll my own inductor and apply a 70pF cap to gnd or 
variable cap to resonate

Wish me luck

Thanks

Carl AG6X

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 14, 2016, at 11:56 PM, "Don Kirk" 
<wd8dsb@gmail.com<mailto:wd8dsb@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi Carl,

Does not appear anyone has answered you, so let me give it a quick shot while 
between flights in Japan.  I'm somewhat confused with your final L network 
configuration because you mentioned one capacitor, and then a second capacitor 
without mentioning if you still had the first capacitor in your configuration, 
etc.  You also did not mention what L network configuration you used (see 
below).

Therefore I started from scratch to see what a 64 foot vertical wire would look 
like at 7.050 Mhz to see what kind of L network would be required to convert 
its impedance to a pure 50 ohms resistance.

Using EZNEC demo, I approximate a 64 foot vertical wire on 7.050 Mhz has an 
input impedance of approximately 1274 +j1436 ohms when just using a ground rod 
with medium soil (because this antenna has such a high input impedance it 
really does not matter what I use for ground conductivity).

Then using an online L network calculator I come up with the following two 
different L network configurations you could use to match to a 50 ohm resistive 
source.

L network with inductor between bottom of 64 foot vertical and ground.
L = 10.18 uh
C = 59.9 pf

L network with capacitor between bottom of 64 foot vertical and ground.
L = 8.5 uh
C = 67.6 pf

Not sure what L network configuration you used, but does it sound like I 
closely replicated what you have based upon one of the above mentioned L 
network configurations?  If not, then please better describe your configuration.

Please advise so we can better answer your question, and hopefully I have not 
messed something up with my quick analysis/approximation.

Don (wd8dsb)




On Sat, Feb 13, 2016 at 4:53 PM, Carl Braun 
<Carl.Braun@lairdtech.com<mailto:Carl.Braun@lairdtech.com>> wrote:
I have revised my question to correct the length of the antenna in question


Topbanders

In the past, I've posted some questions related to making my 80 meter verticals 
(64' tall ground mounted) work on different bands.  The pair is spaced at ¼ wl 
on 80m and then I switch in base loading to resonate the same pair on 160m 
which are then effectively spaced at 1/8 wl.   Now I want to make them work on 
40m which would have them resonate as ½ or 5/8 wl and would have an effective 
spacing at ½ wl.

So this is what I did...I installed an L network off of the vertical 
effectively tuning a 64' stick of aluminum to 7.050.  It took me a couple of 
tries as the first 1500pF (monster) variable capacitor wouldn't get down low 
enough to get me flat.  I had another 50-150pF Johnson variable cap available 
so I tried that and got the antenna to tune to 46 ohms at j+0.    Inside the 
shack I see 1.0:1 Vswr from 7.000 to 7.290...wow!

I measured the cap and it came to 70pf.  My cheapie Chinese meter doesn't 
register anything on the L scale but I have 7 turns on a 3 ½" inductor. The 
full coil is 33 uH at 25 turns so I estimate 8-12 uH of inductance.

But what have I done? Have I resonated a ½ wl antenna or have I resonated 
something else like a 5/8 wl antenna with the added inductance?

I plan on treating them as ½ wl spaced phased verticals on 40 and feeding them 
with equal lengths of ¾ wl feedlines for broadside phasing and then adding an 
additional 2/4 wl to get my 180 degree shift for end fire.

Please share your comments.

thanks

Carl de AG6X

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