[ARC5] Ant. Tuning Series Caps - Trials and Surprises

[Dennis DuVall]

Neil,

OK,we both have “back yards,” interesting.  During my stint as G5BSW I only had a small “garden” but got useful results on 80, 40 and 20M with a 100 ft wire (including lead-in to the shack and a bit of droop
at the far end) and  this operating against the mains and plumbing grounds in an urban Yorkshire setting.  As I remember i was able to match this to my Yaesu FT-101B with a simple “L” network.  

At the other end of the spectrum, as DA1IN I operated out of the 4th story of an Army apartment building  with a 450 ft wire running over to a second building.  Operated this end-fed system against the building
heating system plumbing.  Experienced some RF in the shack on 20M initially but cured this with a piece of scrap wire cut a quarter wavelength long connected to my “ground system and then dangled out the 
apartment window.  Made DXCC with that system.

Hope this has provided you with some ideas and good luck.  Rule of thumb that has served me well over the years is to simply get as much wire up in the air as high as possible and couple power into it.  

73 

Dennis DuVall, W7QHO

*************

> On Aug 6, 2017, at 9:27 PM, AKLDGUY . <neilb0627 at gmail.com> wrote:
> dInteresting, because I have a problem with only a small back yard and haven't yet
> come up with a good antenna configuration. Not sure what you meant by drawing
> attention to the difference, but I suspect "garden" is the British expression. We use
> back yard here, and there are many many differences between Brit and New Zealand
> English. See:
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English>
> 
> 73 de Neil ZL1ANM
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 4:04 PM, Dennis DuVall <duvallddennis at gmail.com <mailto:duvallddennis at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Good question.  With a voltage fed antenna connected to a low power radio like a Command Set, GRC-9, SCR-284, etc. the ground currents will be very small and I have found that my normal shack ground system is more than sufficient.
> likewise in a mobile situation the body of the vehicle gives more than satisfactory results, i.e., not enough "stray RF" floating around to cause feedback or other problems.  High power is another matter of, course, and I run a back 
> yard (garden in your parlance) full of radials and ground stakes under my end fed "Inverted L” wire that I use when running a KW.
> 
> Dennis DuVall, W7QHO, ex G5BSW, DA1IN
> Glendale, CA
> 
> ******************
> 
>> On Aug 6, 2017, at 7:15 PM, AKLDGUY . <neilb0627 at gmail.com <mailto:neilb0627 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> What do you work the setup against? A wired connection to a ground post or the mains ground?
>> Or something else?
> 
> 

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