160 Meter Dipole

I put up a 160 meter dipole a short while ago.

Due to my currently limited “launch” equipment (throwing a weight over a tree branch) it is only about 10 m (30′) up at both ends and only 7 m (21′) at the center support. The center insulator is “attached” to the corner of my roof for now.

The feed line vertical drop is only about 5 m (15′) due to restrictions in house construction. This makes it less than ideal for a top loaded ‘T’ antenna on 630 m. It does work for 630 m (non-resonant) but not efficiently.

It works well on 160 m and tunes on all bands (some very badly!). I’m assembling the parts for an air cannon so that I can launch a line over the 30 m (100 ‘) trees near my house.

The load coil and tuner will be next … more to come!