Posted: 8/16/2016 5:28:57 PM EDT
I was hoping that I could get some ideas for a new antenna. Looking for 20m, on up. ( not really sure, I'm still pretty new to this ). I have a s9 43' vert. thats seems to work ok, but can I do better? I was wondering if I could feed an inverted L at the pine tree by the front walk, have one leg dropping down the trunk and another connected to a support rope in one of the pines on the S. corner of the property. What do you guys think? Any advice is appreciated regarding feedlines, other options, etc. Thanks!
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Your 43 foot vertical is too tall for the high bands. Once you go past 5/8 wavelength, the signal lobe points up at the sky, not toward the horizon.
Maybe a Butternut or even just a homebrew vertical for the higher bands as an addition. If you're take 2~3 feet off the 43 footer it would probably do better on 20m. The code for the first photo is messed up. |
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What are you using to tune the 43ft. vertical you have now? If you're using a remote tuner/coupler, then shortening it up to 31ft. should do much better on 20m.
If you want to go "tuner-less" then a Hustler 5BTV vertical would be a good choice but you'll need a radial field like the S9 vertical should have. Just remember, the solar cycle is on it's way down big time and signals are way down because of it. Changing antenna designs may not help. |
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Quoted:
What are you using to tune the 43ft. vertical you have now? If you're using a remote tuner/coupler, then shortening it up to 31ft. should do much better on 20m. If you want to go "tuner-less" then a Hustler 5BTV vertical would be a good choice but you'll need a radial field like the S9 vertical should have. Just remember, the solar cycle is on it's way down big time and signals are way down because of it. Changing antenna designs may not help. 31 feet would be a halfwave, which is not good to try to tune at the base. A 5/8 would be much easier to tune and perform better. |
| Given that we are low in the sunspot cycle, and therefore propagation is going to suck on the higher bands for the next couple of years, I would encourage you to concentrate on 20 through 160 instead of 20 and up. To that end a large inverted L would be very good to have. |
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Quoted:
31 feet would be a halfwave, which is not good to try to tune at the base. A 5/8 would be much easier to tune and perform better. Quoted:
Quoted:
What are you using to tune the 43ft. vertical you have now? If you're using a remote tuner/coupler, then shortening it up to 31ft. should do much better on 20m. If you want to go "tuner-less" then a Hustler 5BTV vertical would be a good choice but you'll need a radial field like the S9 vertical should have. Just remember, the solar cycle is on it's way down big time and signals are way down because of it. Changing antenna designs may not help. 31 feet would be a halfwave, which is not good to try to tune at the base. A 5/8 would be much easier to tune and perform better. Agreed. My maths were off badly. 
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The general rule of thumb is to use horizontal antennas on bands where you can get the antenna up at least 3/8 wavelength, and verticals on the lower bands. Vertical antennas are roughly 0 dBi, while horizontal antenas are in general around 7 or 8 dBi **if** you get them high enough at that 1/2 wavelength or so.
As others mentioned, the 43 footer is starting to crap out with high angle radiation on 20M and up - so if you can string horizontal antenna(s) up that 30 or 40 or 50 feet, you will be rockin' on 20M or 30M or 40M respectively and the higher bands as well. A non-resonant inverted-L, my personal favorite, performs both functions - vertical antenna on the low bands, horizontal antenna on the high bands, with nice low angle DX worthy radiation on all. I use my 45 ft x 45 ft and 23 ft x 22 ft inverted-Ls on 160 - 10M and 80 - 6M. |
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Sorry for the delay in responding. KB7DX, I'am using a tuner in the shack with a balun at the base of the antenna. KnowFear, those two inverted L's sound like what I might want to try. Thank you all for you advice and critiques. Can you offer any specifics for feed lines or any thing else I need to know?
- Chas |