My plan was to hopefully get a line up over the maple tree in the backyard as a prelude to building and installing a new wire antenna over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Again, it was not to be. By the time I got home from the FLDigi/NBEMS seminar that a bunch of us attended Saturday morning, it was already raining.
Sunday was a no-go here because it was extremely windy. It was so windy, that as Harold (my Beagle) and I sat on the couch in the living room, we could actually hear the wind "howl" as it blew up and down the street. If I had attempted to shoot a line in that wind, I would never have gotten good placement.
So that leaves next weekend. I kind of hate to take down the W3EDP as it served me decently well on 160 Meters. It really shouldn't have; but with 5 Watts, I was able to routinely get out as far west as Illinois. For a small suburban lot like mine, that's no small feat. I know that any doublet that I put up will not be nearly long enough to get me any kind of signal on 160 Meters.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
For 160m, I don't recommend a doublet unless you can get it 250-300 feet high. For the practical heights that most hams have easy access to (35-100 feet), a 160m doublet is a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteOn 160m, 80m or even 40m, you might be better served putting up a vertical of some kind, with a good radial field. An inverted-L, J or U work well, even at modest heights.
I shunt feed my 15m (49 feet) tower, and I've worked and confirmed all 50 states as well as more than 40 countries with that antenna. I've also had good success with an inverted-L out in the woods with 24 ground-mounted radials.