[Elecraft] OT - SteppIR Vertical and Elecraft Products

[Phil & Debbie Salas]

"One way to accomplish that at a lower price than a commercial ATU at the
antenna is to put in a matching network for each band, relay switched, at
the base."

I use a 43-foot vertical for 160-20 meters.  The higher radiation resistance 
(compared to other verticals) helps with antenna efficiency over other than 
a perfect ground system (I do have a lot of radials, but I know my ground 
system still isn't perfect).  The 1:4 unun at the base gives a relatively 
low compromise SWR on 40-10 meters, resulting in negligeable SWR-related 
coax losses if you use good low-loss cable.  My worst-case SWR is on 20 
meters where it is about 5:1, resulting in only a fraction of a dB loss 
through my 60 feet of 1/2" heliax.  The problem is on 160- and 80-meters 
where the SWR is very high so coax and unun losses can be high - and 
matching from the shack is very difficult or impossible due to the high SWR. 
So I built a relay-switched matching unit that lets me select 160, 80, and 
60-10 meters.  Actually, I couldn't stop myself until I'd built three 
different matching units.  Details are in the "Articles" section at 
http://w6rvb.com/ad5x/.

Phil - AD5X