[Elecraft] How to improve my signal O/S 20M

[Bill Smith]

I’m trying to improve my signal.

 

I have limited understanding of radio and electronics, but
have picked up a few buzzwords and some of their meanings along the way.

 

The bad: I live in a ground floor apartment of a very old (100+
year) building (mish-mash of electrical and digital coax in the attic, none of
it in conduit).  I am apartment manager
now (don’t own the building) so have essentially no options for antenna over
the yard. I have power lines at 20-25 ft in height about 60 ft north and 40 ft
west. I have telephone lines at the same height 40 ft east. The city I live in
limits my antenna height to 10 ft higher than the highest point on my building.

 

The good: I have access to the flat (6 degree grade) roof of
the building, 60 ft NS and 100 ft EW; 2 stories, so roof height is 22+ feet. I
have a 40M dipole at 10 ft over the roof, with one wire at 120 degrees (0 for
due north) and 240 degrees (essentially pointing south). It is fed with 110 ft
of a RJ-58A/U. I also have a 20M Moxon (also at 10 feet) pointing 45 degrees
(from Denver CO to Europe) fed with 140 ft of RG-8x.

 

System specs are (I’m not good with electronics, so not sure
of the meaning of the R and X measurements supplied by my MFJ-259B antenna
analyzer):

            40M dipole:
1.6 SWR at 7.2 mhz with R = 76 and X = 15 (no balun)

            20M Moxon:
1.3 SWR at 14.0 mhz with R  = 50 and X =
15 (1:1 balun)

            K-2 with
SSB and ATU for QRP (recently put into to top shape by Don W)

            KPA100
w/ATU for QRO (have used little with digital)

            Signalink
USB

 

I am limited to digital (never could learn the code in 300+
hours of practice), but that’s OK. 

 

I have made a number of contacts with the 20M Moxon. (I
limit my power to 5 watts digital, as it can be nearly 100% duty cycle for over
1 minute). It is incredibly quiet (a 30 db front to back ratio as I recall?).
But my DX contacts are usually South America (at 180 degrees) and sometimes
Southern CA (must be at about 240 degrees! – how does my signal get there??).
No European contacts yet, but now that I am retired, maybe I’ll have better
luck at noon (MST is –8hrs UCT).

 

Possible improvement: I have limited (very) funds, but could
extract about 100 ft of 300 ohm ladder line from a G5RV, that I got for $10.00,
and replace 90 feet of RG-58 with the ladder line and a 4:1 balun that I
purchased when I was “rich” (i.e. employed). I would hope that this would
reduce my loss by maybe 2 db, and allow me to work any band between 80M and 10M
(I heard that a doublet is quieter than a dipole – is that true?).

 

The smaller question is: I understand the impedance of the
300 ohm ladder line could result in an SWR of up to 15:1 on some bands, so will
my K2ATU handle that?

 

The bigger question: can a 40M antenna be effective in my
situation? Or is the interference from the electrical wiring 10 feet below my
antenna, the low power (5 watts), the nearby power lines, and the radiation
pattern of a 40M signal off of a 10 ft ground (all my signal going straight
up?) too much to overcome.  I have made
0 contacts on 40M using PSK31 and JT-65. But maybe I need to try longer, as I
have only worked that band a total of 8 hours after 20M has closed – I SEE a
lot of JT-65, but have yet to be heard.

 

Final question: What options do I have to improve my chance
of being heard outside of 20M (since my roof perimeter is 320 ft, I could fit
in an 80M loop. However, construction could be a challenge with limitations on
changes that I could make on a roof that I don’t own)?

 

Whew! If you got through this post, you deserve a gold star!

 

Thanks for any input.

 

73,

Bill Smith, KC0TBO