[Antennas] Loading Coil Placement

Tue Jul 12 23:02:37 EDT 2005

Hi All,
A couple of weeks ago I wrote to this group asking for feedback on shortened dipoles/inverted vee's for 160, 80 and 40. In the interim, I found a couple of coils I had saved from an experiment about 20 years ago with a shortened 160 meter inverted vee. Of course, the info on dimensions for that antenna are long gone. These coils are wound on what appears to be 2 and 3/8" OD PVC which a friend had actually turned on a lathe so that the wire rests in a continuous spiral around the pipe. It seems to be number 12 or 14 AWG about 68 turns. I am thinking of adding these to my existing 135' inverted vee fed with 450 ohm window line. My problem is I can't seem to find anything definitive as to where in the antenna to insert these coils. This antenna started out as an 88' doublet to which I have added length to bring it to the present 135" length. It would be simplest to insert these coils at the point where the extra wire was added.
I would like to get some feedback as to your thoughts concerning the feasibility of what I propose or where to insert loading coils such as these and possible overall antenna length to get the system to tune on 160. I need to keep it somewhere around where it is now or slightly longer--I can't go the full length on 160 or I wouldn't need these coils. <GRIN>
Thanks much in advance for your thoughts and feedback. Very 73.
Kevin :)
Amateur Radio: K7RX
Navy Marine Corps MARS: NNN0SHS