Yes, but if the long wire is on the order of a half-wavelength, the
ground becomes a lot less critical.

Chuck, NT3G


wrote:
slow-z wrote:

Been off the bands about 15yrs, and want to get back on! have forgotten
much. Can i feed a long wire antenna with a tuner that only has a
unbalanced output.


For transmitting purposes you will need to provide a good RF ground
at your tuner. This can be ground radials, good, or a ground rod, not
so good. The ground makes up the other (necessary half) of your long
wire antenna. A 1/4 wave counterpoise wire at the operating frequency
will provide a good? RF ground.
The unbalanced tuner should have the "long wire" connected to the
"hot" or rf output of the tuner, and the ground or common connected to
the RF ground.
Gary N4AST