[Antennas] Hy-Tower re-configure

Tue Sep 28 16:12:10 EDT 2004

Hello group, well, I have had my Hygain Hy-Tower for several years now and have not been very satisfied. I live on a city lot and due to yard size, trees, etc. cannot really put down a good radial system. 
Second attempt at improving this vertical was trying to use some above ground radials, a few 1/4 wave type, not much difference, too close to the ground likely, about 8 feet. 
Then I got more radical, fed the the entire thing with 450 ohm ladder line. I have always liked ladder line, used it on most of my zepps, bi-square, etc...the signals came up dramatically but transmitting was still not good. I compared this generally with a friend a couple miles away - he is using a Gap Titan and although receiving results had improved a bunch, transmitting did not. I figured maybe it was looking at the whole tower now as a half-way on 40 instead of just the 1/2 wave so maybe thats why the signals improved.
Last radical change really did the trick, fed the Hy-Tower as a vertical dipole, broke that wire running from the spike and fed 450 ohm there, one to the spike and the other to the tower section, then ran a short piece of 1/2 PVC out at right angle to guide the feedline away from the tower. It does better than my friends GAP now...by an "S" unit so far. Testing is still underway...tuning into a MFJ roller inductor tuner with 4:1 balun. 
Has anyone tried this as yet? Im sure the dipole configurantion is not balanced but, still, it works well, low noise too, which is something I didnt expect with a vertical. All of the ground mounted verticals Ive owned were generally noisey compared to loops and zepps. The Zepp still beats it on 40 around 50 miles or so, but on 20 meters the received signals are dead even on DX stations, more testing to come... would like anyone response to this attempt or similar experiments.
73, Tim
K8WBL