Hi Steve,

Tried to email you but it bounced. Here's my reply I wrote:

Hi Steve,

You're welcome! I'm having a blast with the new antenna - I've only used
trap verticals in the past, and they are SO sharp that you have to pick a
band segment and live with high SWR elsewhere forever. Since I run QRP on 20
a lot, I wanted it to be as efficient as possible. I have been tweaking some
more and now the SWR at 14.025 is not measurable on my meter, and only 1.3:1
at the far end of SSB! Using my MFJ-259 antenna meter, I was able to tweak
the down-angle of the radials for a precise 52 ohm match at the transmitter.
So now I think every microwatt possible will make it into the air!

I was very surprised to find that I could make up for the slightly short
vertical element (about 2 inches off I'm guessing) by tuning the 4 radials.

It took a LOT more wire than I expected - over a foot on each. But the MFJ
meter says it's dead-on resonant at 14.025 at 52 Ohms, so obviously tuning
the radials is very important. The vertical element was a BEAR to get up so
I was dreading getting it back down - it's copper water pipe and I had to
fish it around tree branches to get it in the clear. And the weight vs.
leverage (only 25 pounds 'dead weight') made it seem like it weighed at
least 100 pounds!

It's only about 12-14 feet up (haven't measured) and the radials get close
to the ground (5 feet or so) with the proper 'droop' - but it clearly runs
circles around my 200' random wire with tuner - most signals are

2-3 S-Units better on the vertical (some signals though still come in better
on the wire, so I have both tuned for where I'm operating in case I need to
switch).

Now to build a high-performance (!!) inverted vee for 40-meter QRP work.

Good luck in your project - if I can help in any way, drop me an email.

If you want pix or diagrams of how I built mine, just let me know.

73

Dave WB7AWK

"Steve Reinhardt" wrote in message
...
Zommbee wrote:
I just put up a 20 meter monoband today. Been working on it for
a week of nights, and got it in the air when I got off work today early.
I used the 234/f formula and cut it for around 14.100 mHz which
gave a length of 16 feet 7 inches. [snip]


Thanks for all the replies. I added about a foot to all 4 radials and
now
the antenna has an unreadable SWR (1.0+something small) from 14.005
to 14.200, where it barely starts to wiggle the needle! I had no idea a
mono-band vertical was SO BROAD! Now most medium distance
stations (1500 - 2500 miles and up) are easily 2 S-units above my 200'
wire. Seems to be working quite well!

Thanks for all the assitance

Dave WB7AWK

And thank you for doing much of my work for me! I was planning to put up
such an antenna (20 M ground plane vertical)a few weeks ago. Your post,
and the replies to it, will allow me to erect and tune mine quite a bit
faster.

Thanks for the Xmas present!

73's

Steve
W1KF