[Boatanchors] Valiant on 160, Antenna Opinion

[Morris Dillingham]

I'm sure others can give more precise answers but I believe that getting it
longer by itself is not the answer.  You need to also get it to an even
fraction of a wavelength.  1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc.

         73 de KI4IUA 
         Morris   


-----Original Message-----
From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Freeberg, Scott
(STP)
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 10:12 AM
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Boatanchors] Valiant on 160, Antenna Opinion

I was just telling Mac WQ8U that I brought my Valiant off the backroom shelf
and back into the radio room after a serveral year absence.  I blew up the
Valant back then while trying to get on 160 meters with my 80 meter dipole,
450 ohm ladder feedline, Heath SA2060A.  I set her on the shelf never got
back to fixing her.  

The Valiant is back and I'll start troubleshooting her.  I'm guessing that I
likely blew out some output coupling capacitors due to horrendous mismatches
while fidgeting with the 80 meter antenna on 160.

To that end, I'm thinking about adding as much wire to the antenna that I
can to get closer to 160.  Its currently an 80 meter dipole around 135', fed
with 450 ohm ladder line.  I use it as an allband antenna with the Johnson
KW Matchbox.   I might be able to add 30' to 40' to each end, resulting in
more like 200'.  While I realize it isn't 260', 200' is alot closer to 260'
than 135' is.  Then maybe the Heathkit SA2060A will have a better chance of
tuning.  

Does this sound reasonable, anyone doing this, or am I terribly confused?  

73, Scott WA9WFA

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