[Elecraft] KAT1 (K1) & end-fed halfwave wire antenna

[Mike Markowski]

The other day I posted an antenna question about making a K1 antenna 
that avoids halfwave multiples (& thanks again to the guys who replied 
offlist).  From the calculations in that note and some modeling by 
another op it seems the ~18m/60' is probably the length to try there.

But end-fed halfwave antennas have some advantages, especially the fact 
that as a voltage fed antenna they have less of a need for a low 
impedance ground to keep rf losses low.  On the other hand, they offer 
very high impedance to the tuner.  The KAT1 manual says to look out for 
"rf problems" at exact half wavelengths but doesn't come out and say if 
it can or can't handle it (even if just at certain ranges of length).

A longtime ham told me some ATUs used to have a switch to move a cap to 
one end of the matching network or another to offer a wider matching 
range.  So if the KAT1 can handle the impedance, great.  If not, maybe I 
can put a coil in series and tap it at the 50 Ohm point of the coil. 
I'm not sure if it's worth the effort, especially since it'd be nice to 
keep portable ops as simple as possible.  But if there's a noticeable 
performace increase...  Has anyone tried either method?  (That is, 
direct connection of halfwave end-fed or tapping an inductor.)  Thanks 
for any ideas.

73,
Mike  ab3ap