A 160m antenna in a 40' garden - an early evaluation


Apologies for the on-topic post.

Following recent threads about the type of 160m antennas that might be
suitable for a small garden, there may be some interest in the
following short experiment.

An aerial wire was run from the upstairs window of a two-storey house,
to a temporary post consisting of a bamboo carpet pole held upright by
means of a parasol base. The length of wire was 35', the height at the
house end about 12', and at the pole end about 8'. Due to the slope of
the rear garden, the wire was approximately horizontal. The run was
approximately NNE/SSW.

The aerial was matched to the receiver 50-ohm input by means of the
matching system described elsewhere: a link-coupled parallel tuned
circuit, with the aerial connected to the 'hot' and of the coil; an 8'
metal curtain-rail was used as a counterpoise and connected to the
'earthy' end of the coil by a 6' patch lead.

An MFJ antenna analyser showed a close to 50 ohm match at resonance,
indicating an SWR <= 1.2:1 over the 60m band; the ultimate tuning
limits of the system were not explored.

On Saturday afternoon, 081206, between 1500 and 1600 hours, inter-G
stations were plentiful, at 100 mile range being S9 to S9+20. Stations
speaking German were distinguishable in the S3 noise level but not
easily readable. Other stations identified were F8 (S7), PA3 (S7), LA0
(S9).

It had been hoped to assess the system during night-propagation
conditions; but this proved not to be possible. The system was
dismantled the following day.

HTH

--

from
Aero Spike
.

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