[AMRadio] new antenna and matchbox a bust.

[Brett gazdzinski]

> Brett, my food for antenna thought.

Thanks, I like to eat!

> 
> Having 40 feet of balanced line to a center fed 100 footer 
> may be a bit too much to ask of the tuner.
> I am assuming the tuner is the Johnson Matchbox (250 watt?).  

Yes, and I suspect that is correct, I seemed to run out of range
on the tuner as the swr was coming down.



>  For 80 and 40 meters, I have found success using at least 
> 125 feet fed at the center and at least 60 feet of balanced 
> line.  The balanced line at the radio end is terminated to a 
> 1:1 balum from which 10 feet of RG-13 goes to the unbalanced  
> output SO-239 on my RF Power Components "Maxi Tuner" of the 
> Lew McCoy Ultimate Transmatch design.  The 10 foot length of 
> coax allows me to pass throught the shack's wall with all my 
> other antenna feedlines.  Recently I extended the antenna 
> into a horizontal loop (rectangle) which measures 120 by 60 
> by 120 by 60.  It is still fed at the center of one 120 foot 
> leg, and the other/opposite 120 foot leg is open at its 
> center.  The antenna will tune 160 meters with ease, along 
> with 80 and 40.  I did extend the feedline to a total length 
> of 110 feet.   Of note, I live in a subdivision and have a 
> lot size of approximately 90 by 140 feet.  Hope this 
> information may be of some help to yo
>  u with your situation.  

Did going to the loop design improve things?
That is a lot of wire!

Brett
N2DTS

> 
> Good luck and I hope you get an antenna configured to suit 
> you ham radio needs.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Robert  WPE4FGR  W4RL  Pensacola Fl
> 
>  
> 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: amradio-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> > [mailto:amradio-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Brett 
> gazdzinski
> > Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 9:19 AM
> > To: 'Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service'
> > Subject: RE: [AMRadio] new antenna and matchbox a bust.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Today I put up about 50 feet each side, up about 35 feet,
> > fed with 40 feet of open wire line.
> > Coming into the house I used 2 RG214 runs, with the shields
> > tied together at the ends, into the Johnson antenna tuner.
> > 
> > A worse working thing I ever put up.
> > It seems to work real well on receive, but the lowest
> > swr I was able to get on 80 or 40 was 3 to 1
> > and even then it acted crazy.
> > 
> > I also tried connection both to the single wire
> > terminal on the tuner, no go there, worse then ever.
> > 
> > I put my dummy load on the balanced antenna terminals
> > and it would not tune to a low swr at all.
> > 
> > I wonder how things would work if I left the antenna
> > at 100 feet and feed it with coax, and used the
> > heathkit antenna tuner to tune to 80 and 40 meters?
> > 
> > Brett
> > N2DTS
> > 
> > 
> > 
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