R:\Google Drive\Docs\Amateur Radio\Aerials\160M\Brian G4DVS very long log of progress on 160M.docx
Aerials=
27/5/14 First ToDo---------------------------------------- 160M vertical
I use Hack Green SDR to do long term comparisons of 160M aerials. In all these todo's will see HG with an number in -db Always during daytime. Always using 5W carrier FM
List of web sites= see Note AR 160M Aerial web sites=
Google +160 meter +vertical +loop antenna
http://www.hamuniverse.com/k6mm160metervertical.html 160 Meter helical wound Vertical
http://www.g4nsj.co.uk/which.shtml NVIS Near vertical incident signal
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/david.brewerton/160-base-loaded-inv-L.htm 80m Inverted-L (Base-loaded for 160m)
http://www.eham.net/articles/21292 Vertical arranged loop Inner of coax to first vertical section. 50ft vertical segment the impedance is about 15 ohms
http://n1su.com/loop.html About 574'
http://radio-amador.net/pipermail/cluster/attachments/20140401/81abcec6/PWOutOfThinAir1980.pdf
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=12114.0;wap2
http://www.k6mm.com/antennas/160-pvrcwebinar.pdf
http://lists.contesting.com/_topband/2009-07/msg00058.html Helically Wound Verticals Not a great idea seem to work but not
http://www.chadlane.co.uk/kingsdriving-in-use/?q=node/34
http://www.w0btu.com/160_meters.html Inverted L Raised radials 2 variable capacitors for tuning.
http://www.hamuniverse.com/kl7jrloopnotes.html Loop antennae notes by KL7JR 2012
http://www.wc7i.com/Vertical%20Theory%20p1.htm Verticals
http://www.wc7i.com/Underground%20Radials%20pg1.htm Radials for verticals leads to more SWR Noise
http://topbandhams.com/tech-page/6-22-different-wire-antennas-for-the-160-meter-band 160m Inverted Delta Loop 86' across top 76' sides
https://pa0fri.home.xs4all.nl/Ant/Quad/quadeng.htm Not that much
http://www.radioworks.com/nloop.html Loops not 160
http://www.yccc.org/Articles/double_l.htm Double-L Antenna For 80/160 vertical ish NO GROUND SYSTEM needed
http://www.iol.ie/~bravo/low_band_antennae.htm Antennae for the Low Bands..80 and 160m ( Vertical "H" Dipole) and Phased verticals.
-------------------------Comments
If it's more local contacts you want, then a good dipole or a loop is hard to beat. I have a dipole and have been able to work some DX with it, but it's rare.
Book "Antennas and Techniques for Low Band DXing" by ON4UN
1st Todo continued.
31/5/14 Put a pulley for red wire at top of centre tree in our wood. At 47ft - 14.326M above ground. Then 21' - 6.04M sloping wire
160M= 1/8 wave 80M= 1/4wave 40M= 1/2wave
---------- feeder - house to wood
CAT5E cable is 4 pairs of 100 ohm impedance. DC resistance 25 ohms / 1,000ft
Seen 1Mhz Attn=2 and 4Mhz Attn= 4.1
Each of the four pairs in a Cat 5 cable has differing precise number of twists per metre to minimize crosstalk between the pairs
Individual twist lengths
By altering the length of each twist, crosstalk is reduced, without affecting the characteristic impedance.[dubious – discuss] The distance per twist is commonly referred to as pitch.
Pair color [cm] per turn Turns per [m]
Green 1.53 65.2
Blue 1.54 64.8
Orange 1.78 56.2
Brown 1.94 51.7
I suppose you can also parallel two of the four pairs and that should make a 50 ohm transmission line. it would be interesting to make up a 100ft run with PL-259s and sweep for loss and VSWR. If I can find some time I might give it a try.
Cheap coax ebay web 2 100M £13.76 loss of RG-6 with a copper clad steel center conductor increases below 7 MHz because of skin effect. Loss RG6 seen 1.77db @5Mhz 7.44db @4000Mhz. web15- 200ft 7 mHz -1.414db 100w>72w 200ft 3.7Mhz -1.0db 100>79W 200ft 1.9Mhz -.731db 100>84.5w
most RG6, the type the cable and satellite industries use, is very good stuff. I don't use it often because it's "stiff" (most of it has four shields and they are plated steel, plus the center conductor is copperclad steel, so it's nowhere near as flexible as say RG8X) RG-6" is generally used to refer to coaxial cables with an 18 AWG center conductor and 75 ohm typically has a copper-clad steel (CCS) center conductor and a combination aluminum foil/aluminum braid shield, typically with low coverage (about 60%) Because of steel in core loss starts to increase <7mhz
The loss of copper clad steel (CCS) center conductor RG-6 is somewhat higher than solid copper (SC) center conductor RG-6 on 1.8 and 3.5 MHz because the copper cladding is thinner than RF skin depth at those frequencies. The excess loss of CCS RG-6 is approximately 0.25 dB per 100 feet at 1.8 MHz.
foil shield cables do not usually withstand repeated flexing as well as braid-only shields
Used to have lots of ur67 coax
RG58 is thin high loss 50ohmn copper screen OK for HF dipoles. ebay 100M-£25 RG58C/U 50ohms U means Utility Ecomony usually means CCS 5.0OD 0.66Velocity factor Loss per 10M 1.8db @ 100Mhz 7.6 @ 1Ghz web15- 200ft 7 mHz -2.134db 100w>61w
RG-213, you will only lose an additional .35 dB for a 2:1 SWR at 1.8 Mhz.
Bell wire or twin mains lead has an impedance of around 72 ohms. Dave Borley said is 300ohms but that is for much wider spaced 300ohm ribbon feeder.
Bell wire feeder on floor to 50ohmn terminator a carier was S6. when earthed at far end = S5, with feeder connected to aerial=S7 Bell wire= 75 ohms impedance.
http://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/PDF/Successful_Wire%20Ant_sample.pdf
http://www.robkalmeijer.nl/techniek/electronica/radiotechniek/hambladen/radcom/1994/11/page70/index.html 160M ferrite rod receive aerial.
http://www.w0btu.com/160_meters.html Best 160M is inverted L beats a low dipole
http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/publish.htm List of articles
http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/CoaxChokesPPT.pdf Ferrites BALUMs
http://www.dj0ip.de/vertical-antennas/160m-inv-l-on-18m-pole/ Inverted L 16M high & a pdf in C:\D_Documents\Amateur Radio\Aerials\160M
---------------- Testing
4."Improvements to the rx noise bridge", R A Hubbs. W6BX1, and A F Doting, W6NKU. Ham Radio February 1977
Rule of thum. Radials same length as vertical. I have used 4 x 120ft 2 in stream
An excellent coax choke for 1.8 to 7 MHz can be made by wrapping 16 turns (about 1.5m) of RG]142 Teflon coax, onto an FT]240]43 ferrite toroid.
------------------------------------------------------- Using inverted L intrees fed with bell wire.
Hack green sdr is 16Khz lower than FT-857 getting a good signal in, can be heard with 5W.
Cannot hear on WebSDR receiver is located in Weert, in the southern part of The Netherlands, near the Belgium border.
Can just be heard on WebSDR receiver on University of Technology Eindhoven.
---------------------------------------------------- Test using dummy load
Improved Paraffin cooled dummy load, switch for 50 or 75 ohms. On FT-857D
On 1930khz set to full 100W on packet load set to 50ohmn. SWR bridge shows Power= FSD SWR= 0. On new S meter for 857 show 2.6V. Dummy load meter shows 3ma.
On 14Mhz set to full 100W on packet load set to 50ohmn. SWR bridge set Power= FSD SWR= 1.2. On new S meter for 857 show 2.6V. Dummy load meter shows 3ma.
On 28Mhz set to full 100W on packet load set to 50ohmn. SWR bridge set Power= FSD SWR= 1.5. On new S meter for 857 show 2.6V. Dummy load meter shows 2.8ma.
Dummy load set to 50 at far end measures 59 ohms so 9 ohms wire resistance.
Transmit 100W 1930khz in house to dummy load shows 3ma on its meter.
Transmit 100W at house down bell wire to stream end into dummy load set to 50 ohms SWR bridge power shows 40 SWR 1.5 Power at dummy load meter = 1.2ma (less than half current)
Dummy load set to 75ohms at end SWR bridge power shows 53 SWR 1.4 Power at dummy load meter = 1.8 (A little more)
17/7/14 Added 20' long loading coil using 3" drain pipe bottom about 10' from ground to aerial. Plus another 14" load coil below. Also now using copper plate in stream.
FT857 running on a battery by aerial. Transmitting 5w carrier by aerial Hack green SDR shows -51.7db (lower is stronger) or S9+27db
Moved to In house 5W Hack Green SDR shows -53.1db S9+25
In house increase power till get same signal strength -51.7db as 5W by aerial Need 7W
In house 100W SDR shows -41.2db S9+35db
Experience has indicated that a section of wire approximately one half wavelength long, wound on an insulating form with a linear pitch (equal spacing between turns) will come close to yielding a resonant quarter wavelength. Therefore, an antenna for use on 160 meters would require approximately 260 feet of wire, when spirally wound on a support.
Continue on todo Aerials for FT-857D 2 Horz loops
9/8/14 Back on Vertical aerial. Test of RG58U coax At 50W direct to dummy load 50ohms shows 2ma on meter. Added 5 rolls of coax. now 1.7ma Ratio 2/1.7 = 0.85
11/8/14 Put in RG58U coax all way to vertical aerial on North side. Used self almagating tape for joints. Using 5W signal into Hack Green= -52.8db Need 6W to get same signal strength -51.7db as 5W by aerial. Back to 5W tried LOT/balum as 4:1 impedance step down = 2:1 turns at HG get -55.1db worse, and worse SWR. Put back & hopeless -80db found near SC at aerial end connector so cut off. shorted here & measured DC resistance at house across cable = 4.3 ohms. Back as was -52.7db Retried 4:1 step down -56.5db - same result. Back as was -52.5db @5W. 100W = -39db S9 + 35db Nothing into HB9 http://websdr.fvzr.ch:8901/ Can just hear on Stafford G4FPH http://www.160m.net/
--------------------------------------------------------------- was in 2nd todo aerials for FT
24/7/14 google low full wave horizontal loop aerial on 1.8MHz
An NVIS antenna configuration is a horizontally polarized (parallel with the surface of the earth) radiating element that is from 1/20th wavelength (?) to 1/4 wavelength above the ground. web 3 NVIS That proximity to the ground forces the majority of the radiation to go straight up.
Overall efficiency of the antenna can be increased by placing a ground wire slightly longer than the antenna parallel to and directly underneath the antenna. One source says that a single ground wire can provide antenna gain in the 3–6 dB range. [4] Another source indicates 2dB for a single wire and nearly 4 dB for multiple ground wires. [5] Ground wires are more necessary when using lower dipoles over poor soils as without them considerable energy goes into heating the ground.
web 1 For a 160 meter loop, 1005 divided by 1.800 (lowest 160 meter frequency in MHz) = 558 feet. If using insulated wire, shorten the overall length by 4% (-22 feet). 558 feet minus 22 feet = 536 feet.
web 2 1005/Freq in MHz = length in feet. For 160 meters a full wave loop resonant at 1.9 MHz will be about 529 feet long Mine is 528' 5"
But I use 1.9MHZ 1005 / 1.9 = 528.94' using insulated wire, shorten the overall length by 4% (-22 feet). 529 - 22 = 507 feet
web 4 feedpoint impedance of a full-wave loop in free space is aproximately 100-120 ? with a gain over a dipole of 1.35 dB. In the real world, installed at practical amateur heights (physically close to ground), the range of feedpoint impedance can be from 50-240 ?
23/7/14 Put green/yellow earth wire along fencing on south side & joined to bell wire (2 parts shorted?) on north side to make a big loop aerial. Total = 4 ohms.(2.7 on 9/9/15) Total length = 528ft 5" Lousy SWR
26/7/14 Wired dummy load 145 ohm (for convert 75 to 50) not shorted to ground to a BNC connector to connect to loop aerial. A diode voltage detector here. Then via a 4:1 impedance ratio unbalanced to balanced.balun (not balum) on a LOT. To get lowest voltage ie best SWR Green/Yellow South direct to balumn, Need about 150pf in series of bell wire. 5W into load gives 20V OC. Into 50 ohmn drops to 4.3V. Into loop drops to 6.9V so Z of loop is about 90 ohms.
TX straight thru to loop 5W gives -72.5db at hack green night get -70db But poor swr cannot increase power.
Maybe try out FET Linear which is more tolerant of high swr. Yes gives FSD on dummy load meter. But then blew up!
9/9/15 Connected loop from 2014 up again. Everything shorted at far end. green/yellow earth wire to Coax outer - DC resistance = 2.3 ohms best use this, but bit long in shack.. Green wire is 1 ohmn.
Bell wire is 3.4 ohm each part, 1.7 shorted. So if use Bell shorted & Green= 2.7 ohms. Coax screen is 1.3 ohm centre is 2.5 ohm. Paper measurements in Amateur Radio folder
1/9/15 2nd ToDo
---------------------- New 436' 132Metres loop from Back of shed
Use a line Output transformer core. 7 turns to tranceiver. 5 - 15turns to aerial with 10ohm resistor across to find resonance. Large variable capacitor to resonate.
14/9/15 used 8 turns to tranceiver, 20t of enameled + 9t black stranded = 29t + 80pf series to get a good SWR gives -66.5 into Hack Green on 1925khz.
4/10/15 Last week put up a new loop. From rear of big shed, North fence, just under oak tree, of 47' tree used for vertical, Trees just over brook, past 80' poplar, up most sotherly 50' tree to 45' level, down to fence past small sheds & grenhouses to row of 8 10' fir trees, under lawn using 90ohmn coax back to rear of big shed. about 400ft 400'
ATU Line OP transformer changed turns to 8 Turns to tranceiver via RG58 coax 20 Turns to aerial variable capacitor about 300pf in series to under lawn part. Now 2.5 : 1
1920Hz 5 Watts get -46.5db at dusk into Hack green. -48.5db at 23:00
20/10/15 Joined a 160M net at 10:00am Ground wave a bit limited only OK up to 15Miles.
22/10/15 Measured new loop 2nd aerial. North leg is 60 paces. (26/3/16 = 66yds) 20metres is 21.2 paces so multiply paces by 0.9434 to get metres. 60x0.9434= 56.6 metres Need to add on extra to top of tree of 5M ie= 61.6M = 202'
South leg is 67paces ie 63.2M. Then add on 8M (3+5) = 71.2M = 233.6' Total length of loop= 61.6+71.2= 132.8M = 436ft So will need Capacitance to bring to resonance.
30/10/14 Works on 80 & 40 with good swr and signals.
4/11/15 Changed LO Transformer to grey marked 16uH wired as 20 turns to transceiver 22uH Q= 5.5 & 41 turns 92uH to aerial. but need 2.5 : 1 ratio so need total of 50 turns ie 9 more. Now 50. 2.5:1 Top band need 370pf /2.
7/11/15 New grey transformer only getting 1A to aerial & S8 Rx. Added extra turns using green+orange+yellow wire now 1.5A S9 Rx. Generally livelier. Now need 300pf /2 on top band, same on 80m, and works on 40M but 500pf /2 is better a bit. Useless on 20 & 15M. Works 80 40M
13/3/16 Use Sweeden SDR for a good test at night of aerial. Loop can just hear my signal.. Other UK 1930 net can hear easily.
26/3/16 Big loop performance is only fair. Try half of it as an end fed. see todo AR Aerials for FT-857D 3rd End fed
20/4/16 Big loop 5W 1.9Mhz FM into HG get -47db
--------------------------- Extra notes found
web 15 Noted- The "L" works good because a quarter wave antenna only radiates from the bottom 20%, the rest is only there for loading purposes, so as long as it's there, somewhere, it'll work fine.
If you use a metallic support, like a tower or pushup, be sure to keep the wires about five feet away from it, at least.
0 132' 264' 396' 528' Mine is 436' N202 + S233.6 just under half waves on each half.
To tune need L C L C
Keep seeing= To determine the approximate length in feet of a Full Wave Loop antenna use the formula 1005/Freq in Mhz = length in feet.
For 160 meters a full wave loop antenna resonant at 1.9 Mhz would be about 529 feet long.
----------------------------------- More web sites
http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/qsl-propa5.htm many chapters - good read
26/3/16 3rd ToDo
26/3/16 Measured wire from stream to big shed = 66yds = 60.35Mtrs = 198ft so if OC at far end will need C to tune. Would still have a large I so better if another 50' longer ie nearly half wave, almost voltage fed. So cut wire near seat by collapsed eating apple tree.
Poor performance, So gave up & re connected wire near seat.
-------------------------------------- New vertical on Southern most tree.
9/5/16 Its an easier tree to climb, many more branches. Put up a vertical. Wire right at top, used a hook Added 3 more wires as a capacity hat. Further down a big wrap round the tree. Then near bottom used the drainpipe with wire wrapped helical wound. Found it needs about 300pf series capacitance in hen hut to tune. Using multiple earth ground/stream radials. Seems feed impedance is >50ohms - too high
Then did some reading-
web 1 Good info. Notes= Series L at bottom or central. Current radiates. K2AV. On-Ground Radial Guidelines= • Don’t use radials longer than the
vertical height of your antenna –Current distribution makes them not work very well –If you want to use more wire, add more radials, not longer ones, More shorter better than few long. My Galvanized wire mesh.
Elevated Radials - Middle to be >16ft symetrical
Coax - RG8 OK
web 9- Most of the radiation from an inverted-L is low-angle and vertically-polarized. Depending on the length of the horizontal portion, there is a lesser amount radiated at higher angles. This can be very useful for closer-in communications, and does not seriously detract from the overall performance, even for DX.
I purposely made this inverted-L longer than 1/4? on 160. Doing so significantly raises the low feedpoint impedance that a 1/4? inverted-L has (about 17 ohms), and also elevates the point of maximum current. I played with the length in EZNEC and settled on 155' total length.
About 55' is actually vertical. At the bend, the remaining 100' goes through a pulley and gradually slopes down to the east to the end insulator (presently ~20' high) and counterweight through a second pulley, to allow for the trees swaying in the wind. The counterweight is a plastic bucket with drain holes containing enough rocks to tension the antenna to to proper degree.
The two 10' high radials are 132' long. They are oriented N and S; they are not perfectly straight, because I used whatever trees were handy to support them. They are fastened to (but insulated from) the trees by screw-in electric fence insulators. More than two radials would be better; but if they are elevated, you do not need near as many as you would if they were on (or slightly below) the surface of the earth.
http://www.w8ji.com/mobile_and_loaded_antenna.htm
http://www.k3bu.us/loadingcoils.htm Inc Current distribution
http://topband.contesting.narkive.com/ylxPXRBT/topband-re-160-loaded-vertical-antennas-barry-w9ucw temperature as a current taper indicator. !!!
----------------------------------------------- FCP K2AV Folded Counterpoise (FCP) on 160M Best use with Amidon T300A-2 #2 material powdered iron toroid core 20 turns sleved bifilar
13/5/16 Made a FCP using thick plain enameled from big drum & plastic spreaders. 2 x 33' 4" spacing
Jim, K9YC says that you can feed this with a regular 1:1 current choke – but replace K2AV’s special FCP isolation transformer with a coil.
http://lists.contesting.com/_topband/2011-12/msg00394.html But it's worse than he thinks. And don't even consider using ferrites. The T300A-2 core and 20 bifilar turns were SPECIFICALLY chosen to produce a residual inductance value in the right order of magnitude to cancel a typical residual capacitive reactance from a 160 meter 5/16 wave single wire folded counterpoise, AND provide enough coupling to make the transformer work, AND maintain a low enough loss to operate QRO without heating, or especially to operate QRP without further handicapping the operator with needless loss. This allows the builder of the "simple solution" to prune the wire to get resonance and remain somewhere around an ELECTRICAL quarter wave radiator. So this works for T's, L's, U's, straight verticals, 1/8 wave-ish raised radials and HOA miscellaneous stealth wires.
A T300 form factor is the minimum to wind 20 bifilar turns on the INSIDE diameter. Twenty turns (forty wires) fills up the inside diameter. Less than the T300A-2's 22.8 A sub L number (Amidon does not use the decimal point) and residual inductance is reduced and doesn't match the FCP. Use of a mu of 20 (#1 material) to pull this off on a smaller form factor with fewer turns adds loss, and gets into heating.
FERRITES?? DO NOT use ferrites. This is a transformer, NOT a balun. There is a voltage differential across the winding. The winding will go lossy.
We wind up overheating ferrites and cracking. This is not a balun with guaranteed 100% cancelling counter-currents. Powdered iron is required.
The Amidon T300A-2 can be replaced with a stacked PAIR of Amidon T300-2, with a SINGLE Micrometals T300-2D, or a stacked PAIR of Micrometals T300-2. You can find the Micrometals cores on eBay. You CAN use the Amidon T400A-2, but that core is forty bux compared to the T300A-2's sixteen, and I haven't figured the correct smaller number of turns to balance the FCP, and since the T300A-2 does the job, why bother to blow 24 bux? Maybe for 5kW RF someone needs to do the work.
My specification for results and success of design is predicated on the particular design of isolation transformer. Move away from that and YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Further, do not be deceived, to use the 5/16 wave FCP, an isolation transformer is REQUIRED. We ALREADY TRIED using regular balun designs to keep the counterpoise current off the feedline to an FCP. They do not work in this app. Been there, done that. With the wrong kind of dirt under the antenna, using a regular balun goes dummy load on you, merely lossy otherwise. Don't try to feed this with a regular balun and then come back and complain that it didn't work. OF COURSE it didn't work. WE DISCOVERED it wouldn't work. WE TOLD YOU it wouldn't work.
Those of you carefully thinking this through could say that you could use a series reactor AND a regular balun. Yeah, yeah, BUT this is now a straight inductor on a core WITHOUT any counter-current to cut down on the losses. So you lose big time on two counts: First, you only saved the cost of 7.5 feet of teflon on wire vs the isolation transformer, because you STILL had to do core+single winding PLUS it also cost you the balun. Second, you lost the fairly high percentage of counter-current cancellation using the bifilar winding in the isolation transformer. So your coil plus regular
balun costs you more loss for QRP and heat for QRO.
If your beef is that it's too hard to make and get the right materials, Balun Designs is making a model 1142s, which you can buy ready-made, now, and does my full specification without any corner cutting. (I have no financial interest in Balun Designs) http://www.balundesigns.com/servlet/the-108/1-cln-1-High-Isolation-Balun/Detail
This is 160 meters, guys. You can't use the miniature stuff down here without going lossy. You're talking about less money than taking the family to a restaurant. Why bother with cheep cheep.
73, Guy K2AV (the inventor)
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Topband/2011-12/msg00639.html The #2 powdered iron core material has been very carefully chosen for 1.8 MHz QRP and QRO, drawing on advice and published work by W2FMI. Do not substitute ferrite or other powdered iron materials. #2 powdered iron cores are always painted red and easily identified. A core without paint or a different color will not work.
http://www.dm9ee.de/FCP_info.html Nice diagram Shows phasing & connections to Transformer. FCP hints: Do not use insulated wire! Raindrops on the Radial might detune the FCP because of the isolation. Guy recommends bare wire. I have used enameled Wire (Kupferlackdraht 2mm) for my FCP. I can tell you later how they work and if there is a change in wet weather. I would never use wire with a thick insulation because K2AV warns you NOT to use it. But I had the enameled wire here and I hope that the layer is so thin that there will be no capacity from the raindrops. K2AY also wrote in an email to me, that water/rain does not from drops on bare copper wire. Thats why he recommends BARE wire
http://www.balundesigns.com/1-1-fcp-isolation-transformer-2kw-1142s/ 85$ 1:1 transmission line transformer intended to provide highest possible isolation between input and output. Consequently there is no direct electrical connection between the input and output with all RF energy being conducted through the massive iron powder core. This makes the FCP antenna very quiet while also providing the required inductance for matching to the folded counterpoise
http://www.iv3prk.it/hc1pf-tx-antenna.htm Pole vertical
http://www.micrometals.com/parts_index.html Supplier of cores In USA
14/5/16 Transformer between FCP & aerial. Note its 1:1 biflar wound 20 turns on a red 3" Powdered iron core. Note phasing, the two biflar wires, one to coax other to Vertical aerial. Will Line output transformer work instead of recommended powdered iron.? Wound one using a LOT, 20 biflar turns = 580uH D=3 and put in use. Found adding series capacitance made worse. Note on 9/5 needed series C.
15/5/16 Added roller coaster, position 5 1/3 better by 1db now on HG -49db & SWR by rig in house now perfect. Best HG signal -49db
28/5/16 Added more top wire 25' high thru tree to other tree I can climb. Then 40' towards Oak tree. Bypassed helical wire on plastic downspout. Found is still resonant too low. Put in series C. 29/5/16 Shortened a bit inside south tree. Very end trimmed a bit, needs shortening more. Now needs about 400pF for resonance on 1920. Used Type 191 CA signal generator but a lot of frequency drift when tune C for resonance. HG -51dB.
30/5/16 Shortened on S tree by taking out circle round tree & taking well away from main stem to S. Now -50dB. Still need series 940pF to tune, found a suitable red HV capacitor,
9/6/16 Did tests of my FET linear. Only 23W out so not worth moveing to just under aerial.
26/6/16 GW3XHG says use a dipole
13/9/16 Added two more vertical wires spread out by 120 degrees up the tree for 30ft. All 3 connected at bottom to series capacitor and at the top of S tree and then on to horz section. Now need inductance to tune. Used Roller coaster only about 10 turns.
15/10/16 Replaced Roller coaster with a roll of wire - only 10 turns. Greased all joints ready for winter.
11/9/16 New idea ToDo AR long wire house to S tree
Use invisible wire. 25 - 40ft high 200ft long. Could earth in stream.
1mm “DX-Wire”, copper coated (0.08 mm) steel wire (called “copperweld” or “copperclad steel” in the US), maximal tensional load 450 N (much more robust than pure copper wire, see www.dx-wire.com ).
The DC resistance is about 30% higher than that of pure copper wire, but when used with RF, losses are about the same as with copper because of the skin effect. DX-Wire can easily cope with the legal 750 watts output power. On 1.8 MHz the RF current is flowing in the wire down to a depth of 0.05 mm, on 14 MHz it is just 0.02 mm, i.e. 0.08 mm copper coat is sufficient!
Resistance on topband is 0.114 Ohm/m. Total losses due to resistance of the wire are in the range of 5 % (40 watts at legal power). This will warm up the thin wire a little bid, but does no cause any problems.
It is almost impossible to spot the 1mm wire in distances >20 m. The black-coated type of this wire is the least visible of all. It only gets more visible from time to time during winter,when ice is building on the wire.
web 8 bit expensive £30 165FT 50M HDCW Hard Drawn Copper 16 gauge (1.6mm)
18/10/16 AR Linear for 160M
FT-857D gives 100W out, so need 500W to make a meaning full increase in signal strength. Home made IFR520 linear give also about 100W.
AR Ferrite cores Balun
Read somewhere- A Balun needs 4 or 5 times the XL over its intended impedance. Ie using 50 ohms need 250ohms XL. Ie on top band need 21uH
XL 250
L = ----------- = --------- = 21uH for 1.9Mhz 250 ohms. Ie on a line OP transformer input winding need at least 3 turns 4 for safety.
2 x Pi x F 2 x Pi x1.9x 10 power of 6
Google inductance needed in a balun. (not Balum) XL = 2 x Pi x F x L Reactance = 2 x 3.1416 x Frequency x Inductance
--------------------------------------- Ferrite materials
T-200-2 FT50-43 FT240-43 big FT37-43 smallish fba18e medium tall
FX1588 Toroid 38mm Outer Diameter, 25mm Inner Diameter 6.3mm Square Thickness Weight 18grams each 1982 Ferrite rods Need 15 turns or so to block 3.5Mhz
-------------------------------------------------------- TV LOT Line output transformer cores
Are a high permeability core material very suitable for 160 & 80M 10 turns ok for a Balun on 160M
Measured inductance using TF2700 - dirty one with enameled wire =in uH Micro Henries 3Turns= 10uH,, 10T=130uH. 20Turns= 525uH
Bigish one with slots on sides 20Turns= 580uH D=3 D= 1/Q
Smooth plain one with thick wire= 10Turns=190uH,(1.8=1.8Kohms), 5T=46uH (xL at 1.8Mhz=550ohms), 3T= 17uH (1.8=203ohms)
On bought at Hack green rally 2015 5T= 50uH 4T= 34uH 3T = 21uH
At Top band 20Turns fills up winding space if biflair = 580uH in a LOT XL = 2 x 3.1416 x 1.9 10+6 x 580 10-6 x = 6924 Ohms
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grey marked 16uH G47V64C237 GEZCLEX About 2" OD
25turns= 25uH Wound for 436' loop. Put at bottom of shed. Outside 20turns = 22uH Q x1 =5.5 to 50 ohm coax Inside bit thinner enameled wire 41 turns = 92uH to aerial via a variable capacitor.
But is wrong should be 2.5 : 1 see todo
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other cores I have
Got 2" pot cores used 2 for 160M Linear
Grey 3" torroid marked 16uh had 2 x 18 turns when shorted together in parallel = 17uH So for top band need 20T
MULLARD FERROXCUBE FERRITE POT CORE FX2243 8628K Used to have lots of these.
Cylindrical 2cm long 1cm diameter 3 turns= 30uH so very high permeability. Got about 6 in ferrites cardboard box in loft
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LARGE BLUE FERRITE RING TORROID fba18k
FT140-43 = Outside diameter (A) = 1,400 at 35.55/mm/-0.75 mm Inside diameter (B) ID = 0.900 in/23.0 mm/-0.55 mm Height Ht (C) = 0.500 in/12.7 mm +/-0.50 mm
AtL= 885 /-20% uH = (L*2Turns)/1000 Actual measured using 10 turns at #28 computer fair-rite wire
Temperature Stability (ppm/° C) = 12500 Color Code = shiny black
Application Freq Range Wideband Transformers 5-400 MHz Power Transformers 0.5-30 MHz RFI Suppression 5-500 MHz
8 x AMIDON FT140-61 LARGE FERRITE TOROID. FAIR-RITE 5961002701 COBWEB, G3TXQ £20
5 x FERRITE RINGS from High Quality Speaker System A Useful sized good quality ferrite ring. Removed from an unused high quality speaker system
This is for a pack of 5 rings Dimensions are external diameter 18mm, internal diameter 10mm and 12mm deep £6
Ferrite ring. possibly type 43. Dimensions are external diameter 47mm, internal diameter 27mm, and the 'height' of the ring is 14.5mm. Weight is 85g. each one= £4
5 x FT50-77 AMIDON FERRITE TOROID. FAIR-RITE 5977000301 as used in QRP SWR, O/s diameter 0.5" 77 mix ferrite £4.25
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Best supplier of Ferrites
http://www.amidoncorp.com Saved whold site on web 5 I:\cd image\Web site tools\HTTrackwebcopy\Copied\Ferrite Amidon
Also saved best in C:\D_Documents\Radio Amateur\Ferrite
Web 2 FT-(size)-43 43 Material is used for EMI/RFI suppression in the 20 MHz to 250 MHz range.
61 Material and is designed for inductive applications up to 25 MHz and also suppresses noise frequencies from 200 MHz to 1000 MHz
67 Material is for high Q inductors up to 50 MHz. Suppresses frequencies above 1000 MHz.
68 Material is non-standard and only in stock on a few sizes. High Q up to 100 MHz.
75 material Excellent attenuation from 0.5 MHz to 20 MHz
Ferrite Toroid coil forms for transformers, inductors and RFI suppression.
77 material An excellent coax choke for 1.8 to 7 MHz can be made by wrapping 16 turns (about 1.5m) of RG]142 Teflon coax, onto an FT]240]43 ferrite toroid.
F Material High Saturation flux density at high temperature. For power conversion transfomers. Good noise suppression from 0.5 to 20 MHz.
H material no longer made Very high permeablity of 15,000.
J material has low volume resistivity and low core loss from 1 KHz to 1 MHz. Used for pulse transformers and low level wideband transformers. Excellent frequency attenuation from 0.5 MHz to 20 MHz.
K material is used primarily in transmission line transformers from 1 MHz to 50 MHz. Our W2FMI baluns and ununs use this material.
W material is a high permeability material used for frequency attenuation from 100 KHz to 1 MHz in EMI/RFI filters.
E Core Sets Set includes 2 Ferrite E Cores and one bobbin. Permeability 2000
0 Material Iron Powder Toroids Permeability = 1 Frequency Range = 100 Mhz - 300 Mhz Color = Tan eg T5-0 T150-0
1 Material AL Value listed in µH/100Turns Permeability = 20 Freq. Range = 0.5 Mhz - 5 Mhz Color = Blue
12 Material Permeability / µi = 4 Frequency Range = 50 MHz - 200 MHz Color = Green & White (unless noted)
Also 10 12 17 18 2 15 26 28 3 40 52 6 7 8
Pot Core Sets made from 77 material
