[ICOM] Windoms and other things...

[Richard Thorne]

Hi Jerry:

You make some good points on loops.  I've had a few of those and they do
work well.

My plan is to put up two masts that will be 15 to 20 feet tall, not sure
what the final height will be.  These two masts will run north and south
along my back fence line.   The distance between the two masts will be
60 feet.

I could put some sort of loop between them, but I think I'm going to
scrap the windom idea and go with a 60' dipole fed with ladder line,
then to an AH-4 tuner.  That should give me good coverage for 10m
through 40m and sub-par performance on 75/80 meters.

Later I may be able to get a couple more masts up also going north south
but about 20' away from the fence line, that would give me enough room
to make a rectangle loop that will be 160' in circumfrance.

At any rate I think the AH-4 tuner will be the key as I'll be able tune
the antenna close to the feed point.

73 and thanks for the ideas.

Rich - N5ZC
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JerryM" <jmangas at fast.net>
To: "ICOM Reflector" <icom at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:37 AM
Subject: [ICOM] Windoms and other things...


N5ZC should look at other antenna possibilites if all he wants to do is
have some domestic QSO's. A horizontal loop at that 15' height is a worm
burner or a cloud warmer but will produce great results out to a
thousand miles or so (except 160m) depending on size/freq, and if feed
with ladder line and a balun should easily be handled by the tuner on
all bands including and above the primary. It will even produce some DX
under the right conditions on the higher bands.

A 40m loop will easily fit in a back yard (most back yards anyway) and
does all the above. An 80m might go around the house and include the
back yard, and a 160m takes about a 1/2 acre, but at that height will be
nothing more than a great receiving ant on 160... (I've done 'em all). I
stub-tuned the 40m loop, but the rest were fed with ladder line and a
1:1 balun. Delta, Square or what ever, they all work.

Biggest advantage to the loops is that they are QUIET! Far less QRN in
the summer and for somebody in Texas that might be important with the
electrical storms there?

Jerry WC8R
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