....[snip]....
However, if you change the feed line to a balanced line, ie: 450 ohm PVC
covered ladder line, (readily available from any ham store), and use an
antenna tuner capable of matching "balanced line" (ie: the tuner has a built
in balun), you will be able to match that antenna very nicely on any
....[snip]....

Everything he said is true, but, from years of acting like a Hardly Any
Money kinds of HAM, I know that you can get quite-useable results WITHOUT
a balun.

For years, my main antenna was an "unbalanced dipole" (sounds like a good
name to me) with one leg about 250 feet long and the other leg about 275
feet long fed with an unknown length of "true" 450-ohn open-wire feeder
(two wires separated an inch with pencil-diameter spreaders about every
six inches, not the more-common almost-looks-like-TV-leadin-with-holes-
in-it feeders, but probably will make little difference) and using the
simplest tuner I could build: _____
\ | / antenna
\|/
|
| open-wire feeder
|
X (see below)
|
antenna +----------+ v alligator clip
+------+ output | optional | +-------+--+
| xmtr +-----------+ VSWR +---X-+ inductor +-- (no connection)
| xcvr | | meter | +---+------+
+--+---+ +----------+ ^ alligator clip
| ground |
| lead +-----+-----+
| | capacitor |
| +-----+-----+
| |
+------------------------------------+
|
Ground

and it worked fine.

I even have a tuner like this in my pick-up truck, with just a slight
modification: small capacitors mounted on the ends of the inductor
wired at each X in the above sketch. For perfect matching, you need
to be able to adjust the inductance ANYWHERE around every turn, but
that's hard to do in the constricted space of a truck cab, so I use the
eXtra capacitors to "subtract out" a little inductance in either or
both of the two "windings" (between the input and the first alligator
clip and between the first and second alligator clips). Overkill,
perhaps, and looks like an early version of the Starship Enterprise's
FTL engine, but it works.

--Myron.
--
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
PhD EE (retired). "Barbershop" tenor. CDL(PTXS). W0PBV. (785) 539-4448
NRA Life Member and Certified Instructor (Home Firearm Safety, Rifle, Pistol)