[Elecraft] Stealth!

[Vic Rosenthal]

Jim Brown wrote:

>>Feed with as short as possible a length of RG8/U (to 
>>reduce the losses, 
> 
> 
> This is the only component of this otherwise excellent post that I
> would disagree with. I would stick with coax that looks as much like TV
> antenna wire as possible. The difference in loss is negligible unless
> the line is quite long -- see the ARRL Antenna Book -- and big coax
> would stick out like a sore thumb.

This could be a problem, although the coax would be lying on the roof 
and not too visible.  Psychologically, the TV antenna on top would be 
effective canouflage.  The problem is that on some bands the SWR on the 
coax could be very high, like 20:1, which would cause significant loss. 
  The tuner will reduce the SWR as seen by the rig, but of course not on 
the feedline.

One possible solution is to use a base-mounted tuner, like the LGB or 
SGC waterproof units.  Then the SWR on the feedline would be low and 
small coax would be fine.  The original post referred to using the K2 
built-in tuner, so I answered in that context.

-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco