[Elecraft] PAR antenna on 80 meters

[Grif]

Greetings, all-

 

Here is a small tidbit of possibly useful information in this period of low sunspot activity, which probably everybody but me knew anyway.

 

The PAR EndFedZ is a popular backpacking or portable semi-QRP (25 watts maximum) multi-band antenna covering 40, 20, and 10 meters. (It will also cover 30, 20, and 10 if the wire "stinger" is shortened.) Being a half-wave antenna, no radials are needed.

 

I found that if both sides of the coax coming out of the PAR matchbox are tied together and treated like a random wire, the internal tuner in my Icom IC-703 would match it on 80 meters, with a resulting SWR of 1.2. I used about a 34 ft. counterpoise with this setup. I'm looking forward to seeing if the internal tuner in my KX-1 with the forthcoming 80 meter board will also match it. 

 

The IC-703 was unable to get a match on the WARC bands or on 15 meters. Sorry. I think a more robust tuner could probably match those bands as well. An experiment for another day.

 

73, Grif, KF4JG