[Elecraft] 43 Ft Vertical and Elecraft Tuners

[Don Wilhelm]

One can feed the 43 foot vertical with ladder line, and do the tuning in 
the shack (yes, you can feed a vertical with balanced line), but if 
feeding with coax, the best place for the matching network is at the 
base of the antenna.  Coax is good for an swr of 2.0 or less (depending 
on the frequency).  If the SWR is greater than that, some kind of 
matching device at the base of the antenna is in order.
Ladder line feed OTOH is quite OK with an SWR of 20:1 if it is properly 
routed - away from conducting surfaces by at least 3 times its spacing 
and similarly away from the earth.

Again, yes, balanced feedline is an alternative for vertical antennas - 
the antenna may be *unbalanced*, but the feedline does not care, You 
still need balanced current and return current for the antenna to 
functon correctly.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 9/2/2013 7:12 PM, Philip Townsend Lontz wrote:
> Good question... I would like to know too.
>
> A wise man once said nothing....
>
>
> On Sep 2, 2013, at 5:10 PM, Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:
>
>> 43 ft verticals have become a popular antenna, and while they have some strong points, they present a very high SWR on most bands, so they require a serious tuner to get them to load.
>>