On 5/24/2011 7:58 AM, Charlie@thegallos.com wrote:
> What ideas do you have for 80m?
Hi Charlie,
One thing that CAN work on a limited lot like yours for 80M (and even
160M, but not as well) is a top-loaded wire that's sort of vertical. On
my Chicago city lot, I had a 100 ft long dipole with loading coils that
resonated it on 80M and 40M. It worked pretty well as a dipole, but I
also loaded it on 80M and 160M as a long wire by tying both sides of the
feedline together (it was parallel wire line) and using a big wrought
iron fence as a counterpoise. On 80M that worked better than loading it
as a dipole, and it was my only antenna for 160M. There are photos of my
funny looking Chicago antenna farm on my website in the power point that
talks about antennas for limited space.
http://audiosystemsgroup.com/publish.htm
So you probably don't have a big wrought iron fence, but maybe there's
other big metal you could use as a counterpoise, or you can lay a bunch
of radials on the ground. My buddy, KK9H uses the HVAC ducts in his
house as a counterpoise, and I've worked him twice from CA on 160M using
that antenna!
So if I were you, I would try loading whatever that funny dipole of
yours is as a long wire and see how it works. Anything you do like this
demands a good antenna tuner. The Ten Tec 229 and 238 tuners are the
best I know of.
73, Jim K9YC
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