On Sep 19, 11:12 am, "Tam/WB2TT" wrote:
wrote in message


At one time, at least, the ARRL Handbook recommended something like 95 feet.
Way too long is better than way too short. For instance, my 75 meter dipole
receives OK on 20 meters. The 20 meter antenna is useless on 75.

Tam/WB2TT

Thats mainly due to the way it's fed though.
As far as receiving, the short wire is plenty long enough,
just needs a better match.
If you feed a random wire straight to the center pin of most
radios, it will work pretty well. Even a short one.
Course, I probably would prefer a longer wire vs a short
one if I had my choice, but it's not really critical for a
good radio.
This is kind of similar to taking a 80 meter dipole
and shorting together the coax at the radio end,
and feeding as a vertical for 160m. The receiver will
be fairly quiet in the normal 80m config, but will jump to
life once you change the feed system around.
As far as the original poster, I would use whatever
fits. Not critical at all if you are truly feeding it
like a random wire.
Also, if you just stick the end of the wire in the center
pin of the radio, you shouldn't need any kind of
tuner in most all cases, if the radio is decent.
MK