I was thinking that a quarter wave radial for 40 metre is rather long to dangle!
Brian
Definitely!
By now Tasos you should be coming to the conclusion that the antenna you have is similar to having Godzilla running amok in your apartment and you are trying to restrain Godzilla using nothing more than Ramen noodles.
IT WONT WORK!
Iāve always been suspiscious of these āwonder antennasā and the one you describe may well work for some definitions of work. But itās always going to be a big compromise and taming it where you live is going to be very, very hard. So stop wasting your time and make something that will work in your environment. At this point, someone will reply saying they have such an antenna and they live in a postage stamp apartment on the 35th floor and it works on all bands from topband to 3cms and they are #1 in the ARRL honor roll. If they worked so well why donāt commercial broadcasters use them? 
As you have seen, trying to make it work and not fill the apartment with RF is difficult. Stop trying to make it work on all bands. You have a balcony so can easily get to the antenna. Make an antenna for each band you want to work. Make an antenna that doesnāt have huge feedline currents that need taming.
I would suggest you make EFHW (end fed half wave) antennas for each band 20-10m. They donāt really need a counterpoise and they will all fit on your pole. The advantage of the EFHW is that it is voltage fed so there is very little current. You need to make a simple matchbox. The link has been posted to AA5TBās website. DO EXACTLY WHAT HE SAYS and you get an antenna which is docile and functional. You can tweak the matchbox so one piece of wire covers many bands but the more you do that the more current fed the antenna becomes and the more counterpoise you need. You can quickly get back to where you are now so I would make radiating lengths for each band and swap them when you want to change band.
If you live high enough above ground, you could make a 40m EFHW with 10m of wire on the pole and 10m hanging down vertically. Depends if you have the space. Failing that you can make a 40m 1/4wave. This needs some radials and is essentially a 50 ohm antenna and can be fed with coax and needs no matching. A lot of people will tell you all sorts of cock and bull stories about radials, how many, how long etc. You will find you need surprisngly little for the antenna to work. Read the real antenna books, and beware of advice found on the internet (such as this!).
Yes, you can make HF antennas that will work in your compromised space but IMHO you are wasting your time with what you have.
This is very true. When I first started planting radials they were 3m long and should not have worked but they did. Over a few years I have added radials to fit into the garden. So judging on the reels x100m I now have 3.8km of radials but not very true as each summer a few pop up and I slice them with the lawn mower.
Tasos really suprised you did not take up the offer. Anyway someone has been reading here and emailed. The lucky M3 in the SW has got the spare SteppIR antenna for the cost of P&P - a happy bunny. Just waiting for his Paypal payment then off to Parcelforce tomorrow.
Night night from very wet East Sussex.
Mike
So true! Thanks for taking the time to put straight an antenna wakeup call.
I think I have spare parts for a matchbox as described there so Ill try to build one for 20m first and see if I get currents coming back. When I read it I wasnt sure about the power the matchbox could take but 10watt should be fine for starts.
With the other tips I got from here (the QSTās March antenna issue) I register myself for a ARRL/QST membership.
I not sure what a small angle between the wire on the pole and the hanging one will do to the antenna. its hard to have more than 30 degrees without the neighbourhood things you are NSA 
Im around 15-18 meters from the ground (plus 10m pole over this) so I might try something at night
Regarding reading, Im trying my best, Iāve started with the arrl handbook in order to get the general ideas and Ill more to the antenna book next.
Thanks a lot MM0FMF
Your offer was very kind but I had no idea how to manage the antenna at my current location! If I wasnt that confused I would just drive there the next minute! Thanks a lot!
The EFHW match unit consists of a 3 turn primary using some thin PVC hookup wire and a 24 turn secondary of 0.45mm ECW on a T68-6 core. An unknown value polyvaricon tuning capacitor is in parallel with the secondary. The feed is via a coax input from the TX and a pair of 4mm terminals are used to connect the radiating element (1/2 wave on band of choosing) and a counterpoise of 0.05wave. Further details on AA5TBās EFHW webpage.
2 Likes
Nice, Iāve got poly caps and a toroids I got from GQRP
Anyone got wire from Farnell for long (and not very heavy) antennas? 18AWG? How that sounds? or 16AWG?
Im aiming to cut several, as instructed, for 10/20/40m bands so it has to stand forces of 20meter cable hanging between 2 pointsā¦
I though that with 20 meters of cable I could bridge to a tree around 15 meters away, lower tree but I think it will be ok.
I found some 18AWG ALPHA WIRE, 30.5M, 16/0.255MM, COPPER, BLACK. Around 13 pounds.
What do you think?