As for narrow antenna bandwidth, that can be partially solved by increasing
the diameter of the antenna, such as replacing a single wire with a
multi-wire "cage". That's often preferred to adjusting the tuner at the
base of the antenna periodically.
I have the very same bandwidth problem with my 160m inv-L. But I'm
confident that that if I replaced the single #16 THHN with, say, a 4-wire
cage ~18" on a side, I would see a very worthwhile increase in 2:1 VSWR
bandwidth.
The same would be true if one replaced a single-wire shunt tower feed with
such a cage.
Much has been written about this in the past here, and I suggest a search
in the Topband archives.
(And before anyone suggests it, increasing the bandwidth in the above
manner does NOT decrease the radiated signal strength! :-)
I'd rather not comment on anything else in this thread. This is just FYI.
73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
|