End fed long wire question

[K8BBL]

Question: Assume for this question that 1) I have an end fed long wire with a 9:1 balun at the start 2) the wire is ~135ft 3) the balun is mounted on a tree, 4ft above the ground 4) the wire runs 31ft up the tree then turns horizontal and goes the remaining 100ft. Will the 90 degree turn at the top of the tree (from vertical to horizontal) make much difference in the performance?

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

If you a purist any deviation from the ideal is going to get you criticism 8BBL.
Having strung up many long wires, and never noticing any issues with bends like you mentioned-- don't sweat it.

Personally I like terminated long wire antennas (TLW) for situations like yours. They are easy to erect, fool proof to operate and forgiving to all sorts of physical configurations. Granted- you loose 3 dB's right off, but the simplicity, wide band coverage, no feed line radiation and a 1:1 SWR counter balances that loss (for me anyway.) An EFLW like your's is easily converted to a TLW btw

Lauri


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[K8BBL]

If you a purist any deviation from the ideal is going to get you criticism 8BBL.
Having strung up many long wires, and never noticing any issues with bends like you mentioned-- don't sweat it.

Personally I like terminated long wire antennas (TLW) for situations like yours. They are easy to erect, fool proof to operate and forgiving to all sorts of physical configurations. Granted- you loose 3 dB's right off, but the simplicity, wide band coverage, no feed line radiation and a 1:1 SWR counter balances that loss (for me anyway.) An EFLW like your's is easily converted to a TLW btw

Lauri


.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. I plan to use this for temporary operations like POTA. A long wire is real easy to store, carry and set up. All I need is a bit of string & a rock that I can throw 👍.

 

[prcguy]

135ft is a resonant length on 80m and possibly other bands. When using a 9:1 transformer its not recommended to use resonant lengths and there are published "magic" lengths to use so you avoid super high or low impedance and land more in the range where the 9:1 transformer can provide a reasonable match on multiple bands.

 

[K8BBL]

135ft is a resonant length on 80m and possibly other bands. When using a 9:1 transformer its not recommended to use resonant lengths and there are published "magic" lengths to use so you avoid super high or low impedance and land more in the range where the 9:1 transformer can provide a reasonable match on multiple bands.

It was my intent to be resonant. I didn't know that was not the best plan with the 9:1. I'll look into it. Thanks

 

[prcguy]

It was my intent to be resonant. I didn't know that was not the best plan with the 9:1. I'll look into it. Thanks

If you want to go resonant you will have to suffer with higher performance and toss your antenna tuner out. You would use a 64:1 or 49:1 transformer in that case and about 133ft of wire will get you all bands 80 through 10m (except for 5MHz) with a good match and no tuner. 80m on these will be resonant down near the CW portion of the band but there is an easy mod to raise that to the 3.8-4MHz phone range without affecting the other bands.

I have a couple of MyAntennas 80-10, actually 75-10m versions and I just connect my 1200w amp and talk, no tuner needed on any band except 5Mhz.

 

[MUTNAV]

Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. I plan to use this for temporary operations like POTA. A long wire is real easy to store, carry and set up. All I need is a bit of string & a rock that I can throw 👍.

BTW A lot of us would be happy with your POTA antenna for a regular home antenna.
Thanks
Joel