Wasn't real happy with a few of my antennas so I decided to attempt to improve the match.
20m 1/4 Vert ...just behind the house.
Took some length off the Vertical element SWR is now
Freq VSWR
14.0 1:1
14.5 1:1
14.1 1:1
14.15 1:1
14.2 1:2
14.25 1.3
14.3 1.4
Super happy with that , worked an RU this morning CW. Tried to work a guy in Bulgaria but wasn't successful switched to the 160m vert at the top of the hill and was successful.
80m inverted L ( 1/4 vert )
Took a wee bit off this antenna too but its not nearly as broadband as the 20m antenna. Suspect a tweak of the radials might help that out but its not happening until the snow goes which may be April.
Freq VSWR
3.45 1.9:1
3.5 1.45:1
3.55 1.4:1
3.6 1.5:1
3.65 1.8:1
3.7 2.2:1
So yeah, I am mostly CW and FT8 on 80m so its great there however go up and not so much. Think I may try a low dipole cut to 3750 for SSB.
160m inverted L ( 1/4 vert )
Same this goes took a foot off the vert radiator
Freq VSWR
1.7 2.1 :1
1.75 1.4:1
1.8 1.4:1
1.85 1.7:1
1.9 2.1:1
Again great for CW and FT8 but not so much for SSB. This is my " magic " antenna that loads up on 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6 meters with just the antenna tuner in the radio! I have had success on 6m meteor scatter running 100 watts into this antenna. A while back ( in the blog somewhere ) I compared the 20m 1/4 behind the house with the 160m L up the hill and the big guy performed better!
Here is how the 160m loads ...no antenna tuner!
Freq VSWR
80m NO WAY , does not work
40m 3.6:1
30m 3:1:1
20m 2:1:1
17m 2.1:1
15m 1.5:1
12m 1.6:1
10m ( 28 MHz ) 1.4:1
10m ( 29 MHz ) 2.1:1
6m (50 MHz ) 1.5:1
6m (51 MHZ ) 1.3:1
6m ( 52 MHz ) 2.1:1
From 50.6 to 50.9 MHz its a dead flat 1:1 VSWR...go figure
I use the 160 antenna when work FT8 remotely , no antenna switching required and I can flip around between bands super easy.
