"Tom S" wrote in message
...
...I was thinking of doing the following and am looking for
opinions/sugestions/comments both good and bad.

...run ~100 ft of 14G insulated solid
copper house wire around the perimeter of the attic. Use the control
cable
for the switch to run a Icom AH-4 auto-tuner connected to the wire. The
wire will be run in "T" figure (I'll forgo the ascii art). Basically;
West
~15', North 15', East 10', North 15', East 10', South 15', East 10',
South
15', and back West near the start of the run. I only have access to the
metal conduit runs on the attic for ground.

[snip SWL talk] The longest straight run I can make is ~ 35' diagonally.
Woulkd
I be better off just running a straight piece rather then all the ziggin'
and zaggin'?? How about putting it up as a big "Z" (25' West, 35'
diagonally NE, then 20' East)??
Any inputs on this plan are appreciated befor I spend the $$ on the tuner.
Thanks, Tom - AC9TS


I'd go for the long run or perhaps a 90 degree "L" using the two longest
possible lengths.

35' is close to a 1/2 wave on 20 and 2 halves on 10 making it harder to
match (high Z) on those bands. It's nice to keep your antenna away from an
even number of half waves so the impedance isn't too high.

HOWEVER, using the conduit for "ground" means that IT WILL BE part of the
antenna. It will probably be near the antenna. Not good.
It is anther random variable. Not good.

Not being "good" doesn't stop many of us. SO...RF is fickle...try it.
--
Steve N, K,9;d, c. i My email has no u's.