Greg Knapp wrote:
"I need to feed many different antennas with open wire line and need to
run the feedline from each about 200 feet from the back pasture to the
shack."
This is similar to the problem facing commercial shortwave stations.
They usually have more distance and numbers of antennas and transmitters
to serve several target areas simultaneously.
The preferred solution is a feedline for each antenna. These separate
lines converge on the switching location near the plant. Each
transmitter is equipped with its own feedline too. These converge on the
switching location too.
In the "crossbar" switching arrangement, any transmitter may be
connected to any antenna. Very flexible and it works well.
When separate lines are too extravagant, a single line is switched at
both ends between some transmitters and some antennas. You need at least
as many lines as you have transmitters if all are going to operate at
once and not in parallel.
Most commercial stations have multiband radios but use narrowband
antenna systems. This requires many more antennas than transmitters to
serve many different targets in various bands required on the various
paths around the clock.
If you had only one direction or sense to serve, a single rhombic
connected by a single line to the transmitter might do a compromised
job. The rhombic will take a load at almost any frequency, but its
pattern changes with frequency so its coverage of a target won`t be
ideal at most frequencies.
If you don`t want to walk 200 feet to switch antennas, use relays
controlled from your shack. That`s what professionals do.
Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI
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