Ham Radio: Base loaded coil testing on 80m and 160m

If you can't see the video, please insert this title URL into your browser search box:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDT8Aq5tmGI

This is post 2609 in a continuing series of simple ham radio antennas.

If you operate on 80m and 160m from a small urban lot, you know how difficult that can be.  Most lots are just too small to accommodated a full-sized dipole or 1/4 wavelength vertical for these lower HF bands.

However, Mike (M0MSN) has a solution:  Use loading coils to make these short antennas work on 80m and 160m.

Here are some comments from Mike:

The DX Commander or other 10 meter glassfibre pole, fitted with a Loading Coil. A 80M and 160M Vertical Antenna with a 11.15M driven element for the 40M band.. :) In this video I take a look at how it works and how to work out the value of the coil you need to build, to get the 40M element of the DX Commander to work on 1.8-9mHz (160M)..... A base loaded DX Commander for use on 40/80/160M bands, with the use of the 40M element that's 1/4 wave on 40m (11.15). The coil gives a very low angle of takeoff making it great for DX, This standalone version that can be.used with any glass fibre pole or bamboo Caine etc.... Thanks and acknowledgement to Roly - ZL1BQD for the original idea and also to Edy YC2YIZ whom inspired the stand-a-lone version. 80m Coil: 88 turns 2.5mm apart on a 76mm OSD PVC pipe. tapped at top and bottom, I used 1mm stainless rope about 20M long.. Cheers Mike M0MSN

-----

Thanks for joining us today.

Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).