Radio TexMex wrote:

For the last 6 months I've been using a 1/2 wave 40m dipole sloping from
an oak tree in the back your to a peach tree in the front. This has worked
great for 40. I use this for amateur activity as well as SWL stuff with an
MFJ tuner. I always noticed that on some bands, particularly around 20
meters, I couldn't receive as well I thought was possible. The closest
thing to DX I've worked was a station in Costa Rica.

Well I finally got around to stringing up a simple 1/2 wave dipole with a
4:1 balun, cut just for 20 Meters. I strung one end from the same point
the in the oak tree that my 40m dipole uses but I wanted to keep them
angled at least 95 degrees away from each other to keep them from
interacting. Because of this, I ended up sloping this fella down into the
backyard between the oak and another tree and tied it off to a martin
house. I was worried about the fact that I couldn't position this dipole
any better away from the trees - and/or higher.

I finally got a chance to try it out yesterday after all the above ground
power line noise dyed down, and wouldn't you know it, ACTIVITY EVERYWHERE
on 20!!! Way more than I'm use to hearing with my 40m and the tuner.

The 3rd station I worked was in Serbia!!! And I can only squeeze 50 watts
out of my Yaesu FT101B on 20m.


Moral of this story: I've learned you can only get so much performance out
of an unmatched antenna with a tuner.

Cheers! - Matt

Before someone beats me too it, I've already had somebody point out the
goofy flaw with my new super awesome 20M dipole. And after doing some much
needed reading on baluns, I've concluded that the 4:1 balun isn't needed.

Readers: Please be patient. Learning process taking place here.