[Elecraft] Center-fed antennas

[Martin Sole]

Ha ha, that's a good one, I too have a 20dB callsign. Not always but I'm 
sure on occasion it helps. I often get 10 to 20 over nine reports 
running 100 watts to a 2 element (Force 12 C3 @ 24m) from Europe when 
more powerful stations from there make only 5-6 to 5-7 here.

Martin, HS0ZED



On 11/10/2019 19:32, Wes wrote:
> I don't suppose your callsign has anything to do with the success of 
> your antennas.:-)
>
> Wes  N7WS
>
> On 10/10/2019 10:54 PM, Vic Rosenthal wrote:
>> Things I’ve learned by experience:
>>
>> In 63 years as a ham, I’ve had several :-) HF antennas. The ones that 
>> gave me the greatest overall satisfaction have been balanced, 
>> horizontal antennas. The worst have been verticals with inadequate 
>> radial systems or low random-length wires. Inverted Vs with angles 
>> less than 90 degrees between the wires are not much good, either.
>>
>> There is no simpler way to make an efficient multiband antenna than 
>> to feed a dipole of at least 1/2 wavelength at the lowest frequency 
>> with open wire line. With some care in choosing the length of the 
>> line, a 1/4 wave dipole can work almost as well. I’ve worked over 300 
>> countries on CW in the last 5 years on the bands from 40-10m with a 
>> 10m long rotary dipole, in an urban area (it is up 35m on a building 
>> and I run a kW, I admit). I regularly bust pileups on 40m with it.
>>
>> 1:1 baluns work to feed open wire lines, but can become inefficient 
>> in some circumstances and heat up. It’s possible to solve this by 
>> compensating for reactance with a pair of capacitors or inductors 
>> before the balun, but a better solution is a true balanced antenna 
>> tuner.
>>
>> “True Ladder Line” is a good product, but it’s easy to make your own, 
>> and you can use no. 12 (2 mm) wire for lower loss.
>>
>> Sometimes a 4:1 balun may give a better match, but it will be less 
>> efficient (heat) and do a poorer job of keeping RF out of the shack.
>>
>> Nothing has worked better for me at cleaning up RF in the shack than 
>> an old Johnson Matchbox, a true balanced tuner.
>>
>> Victor 4X6GP
>
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