Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip - Elmers Forum at eHam.net

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eHam.net Forum : Elmers : Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip

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Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by KF5DDW on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I am going to have surgery soon so I won't be able to raise my Titan DX which is on a tilt base due to HOA restrictions. I have been thinking of using a 102" SS whip mounted on a jack stand and a MFJ-901B tuner. I would think if the antenna works for 11m it should work for 10m and 20m even though 10m is dead right now. I know I would have to run a counterpoise from the mounting bracket at least 30'. Would a longer counterpoise maybe in a circurlar pattern help to tune for the 40m or run additional wires. I need to know if this will work soon as I only have this weekend and next to get something that will function.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by KE3WD on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Better to put as many radials underneath as you can if ground mounted. Know that it is a compromise antenna. Use it anyway, work what you can work. Radial length is not that important on the ground mounted vertical if you can put out many radials. 10 to 15 radials, fill the area as best you can. Six would likely work if you can't put out 10. I once used an Icom autotuner in the trunk of a big old Chevy feeding a 102" whip, worked across the pond CW routinely on 20 with it, checked into 10, 20 and 40 mtr nets, phone, with it. Occasional 80 mtr use, nothing to write home about.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by N3OX on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
If your inability to put up the Titan when you want to use it is a matter of not being able to exert yourself much, rather than not being able to go out to the backyard at all and put anything up, you might consider getting a 20 foot telescoping fiberglass fishing pole and run wire up the side to use with your autotuner. You could tilt that over with negligible force. If you just need it to be hidden and always up while you're recovering then go for the 102" whip and I'd spend the time laying in a bunch of radials. 73, Dan

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by WX7G on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
If I understand correctly you want to run a 102" vertical against ground radials. And you want to tune it through 30' of coax to an antenna tuner. That should work good enough on 20-10 meters. For radials, eight radials 8' in length will do the job.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by WB2WIK on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
If ur in San Antonio, there are a LOT of perfectly good hams in San Antonio who will help you install the Titan DX now, or post surgery. Lots of great guys there, I talk with many all the time. Why not take advantage of some local help and put the Titan up? It's not a panacea, but it's a lot better than a 102" whip with a tuner. The higher bands have been pretty poor about 80% of the time lately, and a lot of the "action" is on 40 meters, where a 102" whip and any kind of tuner will work very poorly. Sorry to hear about your surgery and hope it all goes great.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by WB5JEO on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I think the issue here was the inability to manipulate the antenna that's already installed but needs to tilted up and down so that it's "temporary" and therefore will pass the HOA. So as a temporary measure, the whip will work, more or less, with a good tuner. It's been done many times as a mobile antenna. Obviously, a reasonable number or radials, to the extent that it can be justified for what I assume is a matter of a few weeks, will be a great improvement. Just drape them out on top of the ground as long as you can manage, as many as you can manage. Normally, you don't want any real elevation unless you can go way up and use tuned radials, but this one won't be resonant, and I don't think the short ground lead to the ground level or the short fall of the radials will make much difference. I think that for a quick and dirty, I'd strap the whip with a couple of hose clamps to a PVC pipe and slip that over a rod driven into the ground and put another clamp just below the bottom end of the whip and use that as the common point for the coax braid and the radials.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by KF5DDW on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Looks like the general consenis is it will work but not very effectively. I have never use a tuner before so I wasn't sure how well this would work. If you read and believe the ads they make it seem you could tune a coat hanger and run through all the bands but we all know ads are mostly hype anyway. So thanks for all the information, keep the ideas coming and I will think of something. Just in case I run out of ideas I just installed Echolink on my computer, I know it's not real ham but it may be all I have while I am recovering.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by KB5ZXM on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Why not get Patriotic, and Install a Flag Pole ? with an underground coax feed? 45 feet should make old Glory flap in the breeze really well.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by WX7G on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
If you are not restricted to the 102" whip, and tuner some distance away, how about a screw driver antenna? That is what I use on 80 to 10 meters. Remotely tuned from the shack I run 500 W to a Tarheel antenna.

RE: Antenna Tuner and 102" Whip	Reply
by N1LO on November 6, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Even a modest speaker wire dipole up 20' would knock the socks off of a base loaded 102" whip that has a few radials - especially since you mentioned 40m! Base loading is the least efficient of all short vertical loading methods.... Get a 100' roll of 22 ga speaker wire, peel apart 33' of it to make a 66' 40m doublet, leaving the rest of the wire as a parallel feedline. Add a balun to your tuner (if it doesn't already have one), pull the center up 20' or more and fan the ends out best you can with string or fishing line. It's easier than you think! Good luck, Mark

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