[AMRadio] Big Vertical on 75

[D. Chester]

After 25 years, I finally tuned the 127' vertical to 75!  Ever since I first 
put it on the air in 1982, I have used it only on 160, as a quarter wave. 
Up in the AM Ghetto, the half-wave high dipole seemed to be all I needed, 
since DX wasn't really much of a possibility.  I never had any problem 
working into Europe with the dipole on CW.

With the expanded phone band and the possibility of working DX on AM, I 
decided to see if I could make the vertical work on 75.  I threw together a 
simple parallel tuned matching network with a 400 pf bread slicer and an EF 
Johnson edgewound coil I found in the junkbox.  To my surprise and  delight, 
I was able to get the SWR down to 1:1 on the third try, of moving the point 
where the feedline taps on to the coil.  When I ran the transmitter up to 
full power on AM, nothing arced over on voice peaks.

My first 75m contact with the vertical was today at mid-afternoon, with 
Howard, W3HM.  Can't wait till  tonight to see what kind of signal reports I 
get at various locations over the country.


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This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout.

http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/
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