[Elecraft] 80M on KX1

[WILLIS COOKE]

I have used the 80/40 combo for over 40 years.  It
works great for 80, 40 and 15 and not bad for 10.  It
does not work very well for 20, 17 and 12 and I have
had poor results trying to add a third element for 20
meters.  I have had good results with and without a
balun.  It may make some difference, but I think
mostly to the pattern and it is not really noticeable.
 I have used RG58, RG59, RG8X, RG8 and TV coax and all
work well.

Cookie, K5EWJ

--- Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com> wrote:

> Tom,
> 
> If you are not adverse to a separate antenna for 80
> meters and you have 
> the space, I highly recommend a full size 80 meter
> dipole.  About 136 ft 
> long radiator and center fed with coax.  It should
> work (and feed 
> easily) for 80 meters (but is a single band
> antenna).  Ideally, it 
> should have a 1:1 choke balun at the feedpoint, but
> you will likely not 
> notice any difference if you feed it directly with
> the coax.  It can be 
> either horizontal or hung as an inverted vee.  Get
> it up as high as 
> possible - I would say on 80 meters 30 feet is a
> minimum, 60 to 70 is 
> much better.
> If you want 80 and 40 meter coverage, you can
> install an additional set 
> of antenna wires at the feedpoint each about 33 feet
> long - run these 
> wires as close as possible at right angles to the 80
> meter antenna wires 
> to reduce interaction.  As the 80 and 40 wires are
> closer together they 
> react more and more.  Tune the antenna lengths for
> the lowest SWR at the 
> midpoint of your band segment of interest.  Tune the
> longer antenna 
> wires first, then tune the shortest ones.
> You could add more bands, but the tuning gets more
> cumbersome when more 
> bands are added.  3 bands is practical, 4 is
> possible, but in my 
> experience any more than that is a recipe for
> frusstration when tuning.  
> The ends must be spread out as far as possible to
> keep things sane.
> 
> In this case the coax will closely match the
> feedpoint impedance of the 
> antenna(s) which makes the feedline length
> unimportant.
> 
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
> 
> T W wrote:
> > Hi, Group,
> >
> > Can anyone tell me what length of end-fed line
> works best on 80M using a KX1
> > with ATU? I'm having a heck of a time trying to
> find a length that will work
> > with 80M and 40, 30 and 20. I know the ATU is not
> really designed to tune
> > 80M effectively. It would be nice to have one
> antenna to do all bands, but
> > if not a separate wire for 80M is okay too.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Tom
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