60ft Portable vertical antenna.

Today the weather was ideal for some /p over Hornchurch Country Park.

Equipment

85Ah Battery, Icom 7200, 18m Roach Pole, Inductor 340µH.

The roach pole provided 18m (60ft) of antenna, and when coupled with the inductor at 15m provided a match at 1880 kHz. The ATU was used to provide a match at 1910 kHz the club top band frequency. It makes it all a bit critical having the inductor so high, but the big advantage is that the bottom 15.5 metres has a lot of current in it, leaving only the 2.5 metres above it at a high impedance, making a better radiator. Ground was provided by a chicken wire fence, which I have used many times before with good results.
m0taz60 ft vertcial

Below is a short video and some pictures showing the antenna first on 24MHz where Dave is working Bahrain where the vertical was set up close to a ? wave, then afterwards, it’s fully extended with the loading coil 15.5 metres up, making it a loaded ¼ wave for 160m. I calculated for 1900kHz, so I guess 70kHz off isn’t bad! It would be easy enough to fine tune it. Lovely day for it, a bit breezy towards the end though!

About M0TAZ

Dave enjoys all aspects of the hobby from contesting in a wet cold field (OK enjoys is a bit strong) to building beams and working big DX. Portable VHF and HF can provide lots of opportunity to try new things, test out antenna and enjoy a field day based curry.
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