Thank you, Dave. I have a 63 foot by 93 foot yard. There are power lines in both the front and back yards. I will have to get creative to use a longwire antenna. Thanks to those who made comments. N0QFT
Dave, I recently homebrewed a 71' Random Wire end fed antenna and I can tune and work 160 to 10 meters with it at full 100 watts output with 1:1 SWR. It tunes all bands including the WARC bands very efficiently. A "random wire" should never be resonant on any ham frequency. There are certain lengths that will perform... and "random" lengths you should stay away from. I also added a bunch of radials rather than just one counterpoise and it works even better. There's only 6' of RG58 coax from my shack to the 9:1 unun which provides legitimate tuning very close to the antenna's feed point. de KE7LOY
I also have a Palomar 9:1 Bullet on a 155' antenna. 23' vertical, 132' horizontal (slightly sloped down to 18'). Coax from feedpoint to shack is 100' with a choke at 70'. This is per the Palomar website recommendation. Also have lightening arrestor attached to ground rod. SWR from 80m to 10m is 2.0 or less (except for 60m at 2.5 SWR). No problem for the FTDX10 internal tuner.
I have several for trees & masts when out doing HOTA etc, I have just purchased (USA Imported 🇬🇧) the Ultimax 100 which is very very durable/weather protected & just 8m/24ft in length, so I am looking forward to some warmer weather (Spring/Summer) to try it out. Also Hawkins Thunderbolts are UK made & greet for any selected band required, the ⅝w 10m is also a great short EF (cut to length/band required) with a simple coil at the base, great for portable use and Homebase, so long as you have a tree or a nail to hang it up a height from, you can Dx the World with a piece of wire. 73's. 407 Mcr Uk 👋
I have two of those Palomar 9:1 Bullets; one with 84' and the other with 102' of "random" wire. They are inverted Ls. I have 2 ea 16 1/2' counterpoise wires on each; one running directly under the direction of the wire and one 180º opposite the wire. Both feed lightning arresters in an entry panel box with a ground rod adjacent. I tried both with and without the CP wires and performance (receive noise and xmit VSWR) was better with the CP wires. I just purchased a high power 9:1 from them in anticipation of purchasing an amp in the next year. It will be interesting to see how the station performance changes with a different 9:1 unun.
Nobody seems to have done a video on what ratio of balun to use and how to determine that. I finally found a site that explained what a balun is, what types there are ( current and voltage) and why you need one. BUT it still did not explain what ratio of balun to use in what situation
The impedance is what determines the balun ratios, that impedance is at the location of the feedline driven element connection. 49:1 is for a very high impedance, thousands of ohms, at the end of a resonant wire length. The 9:1 is for non resonant wire lengths, it has about 600 ohms. This comment doesn't explain everything, so continue your research.
Just installed homemade 9:1 unun with 44 foot endfed wrapped around the porch and 22 foot counterpoise. Can someone tell me if if the counterpoise is supposed to follow near the path of the antenna, or perpendicular, or opposite direction of the antenna??? No video or internet article seems to explain this and why a preferred direction for the counterpoise!?!?
Thank you, Dave.
I have a 63 foot by 93 foot yard. There are power lines in both the front and back yards. I will have to get creative to use a longwire antenna.
Thanks to those who made comments.
N0QFT
I have similar although more severe restrictions, such that even a 40m EFHW presents a problem.
No HOA though, thank god.
Dave, I recently homebrewed a 71' Random Wire end fed antenna and I can tune and work 160 to 10 meters with it at full 100 watts output with 1:1 SWR. It tunes all bands including the WARC bands very efficiently. A "random wire" should never be resonant on any ham frequency. There are certain lengths that will perform... and "random" lengths you should stay away from. I also added a bunch of radials rather than just one counterpoise and it works even better. There's only 6' of RG58 coax from my shack to the 9:1 unun which provides legitimate tuning very close to the antenna's feed point. de KE7LOY
I also have a Palomar 9:1 Bullet on a 155' antenna. 23' vertical, 132' horizontal (slightly sloped down to 18'). Coax from feedpoint to shack is 100' with a choke at 70'. This is per the Palomar website recommendation. Also have lightening arrestor attached to ground rod. SWR from 80m to 10m is 2.0 or less (except for 60m at 2.5 SWR). No problem for the FTDX10 internal tuner.
I have several for trees & masts when out doing HOTA etc, I have just purchased (USA Imported 🇬🇧) the Ultimax 100 which is very very durable/weather protected & just 8m/24ft in length, so I am looking forward to some warmer weather (Spring/Summer) to try it out.
Also Hawkins Thunderbolts are UK made & greet for any selected band required, the ⅝w 10m is also a great short EF (cut to length/band required) with a simple coil at the base, great for portable use and Homebase, so long as you have a tree or a nail to hang it up a height from, you can Dx the World with a piece of wire. 73's. 407 Mcr Uk 👋
I have two of those Palomar 9:1 Bullets; one with 84' and the other with 102' of "random" wire. They are inverted Ls. I have 2 ea 16 1/2' counterpoise wires on each; one running directly under the direction of the wire and one 180º opposite the wire. Both feed lightning arresters in an entry panel box with a ground rod adjacent. I tried both with and without the CP wires and performance (receive noise and xmit VSWR) was better with the CP wires. I just purchased a high power 9:1 from them in anticipation of purchasing an amp in the next year. It will be interesting to see how the station performance changes with a different 9:1 unun.
Nobody seems to have done a video on what ratio of balun to use and how to determine that. I finally found a site that explained what a balun is, what types there are ( current and voltage) and why you need one. BUT it still did not explain what ratio of balun to use in what situation
The impedance is what determines the balun ratios, that impedance is at the location of the feedline driven element connection. 49:1 is for a very high impedance, thousands of ohms, at the end of a resonant wire length.
The 9:1 is for non resonant wire lengths, it has about 600 ohms. This comment doesn't explain everything, so continue your research.
my coax is much less than 50 ft.. can I use ordinary counterpoise wire with no choke and comom mode choke next to the rig?
Just installed homemade 9:1 unun with 44 foot endfed wrapped around the porch and 22 foot counterpoise. Can someone tell me if if the counterpoise is supposed to follow near the path of the antenna, or perpendicular, or opposite direction of the antenna??? No video or internet article seems to explain this and why a preferred direction for the counterpoise!?!?