Hi All,
Having just lost my “home” HF wire to the elements, can anybody suggest something compact to fit into an 11x11m space please?
I have tried a full wave loop for 40m, worked very well on 40, but pretty useless on any other band. G5RV tuned up all over the bands but had the performance of wet string.The last wire was a Windom, ok-ish but suffered loads of QRN.
Bands of choice would be
80,60,40m and as a bonus if possible 30m. I used the windom with strapped feeders fed against several hundred yards of radials on 160m too with mixed results.
I also have a Versa Tuner so can accept coax, or ribbon feeder.
I would think in terms of a doublet, Tim, with the ends dropped vertically to get a bit more length in. 11X11 metres gets you 15.5 metres across the diagonal and a few metres hanging vertically at the ends should give you a reasonable efficiency on 80 metres. I also find that a W3EDP works very well but you may have to zig-zag it to fit it in.
In reply to G8ADD:
Thanks Brian,
I read about the W3EDP in Sprat some time ago and couldnt remember the callsign to look it up again! Found the details now and pacing up and down the garden planning the best method of fitting it in.
I find that you can shorten it somewhat and lengthen the counterpoise and retain functionality on 80 metres, and if you build a tuner specifically for it you can include a wide-spaced variable cap in series with the antenna wire with an spst switch to short the cap out and it adds to the flexibility. I use one for SOTA on 80/60/40 and it will tune 20 but I haven’t used that band yet.
Morning All,
Thanks for all the ideas.Will hasve a think through them and report back shortly.It’s a long weekend next week, so should have some time to play.
