My present antenna is a 137 foot 80 – 10 meters doublet in an inverted Vee configuration, with the apex at about 55 feet and the ends at about 20 feet. It faces Northwest/Southeast but has many other lobes, depending on the frequency in use. A length of #14 450 ohm Ladder Line connects to a 1:1 Jerry Sevick design (picture H) current (a.k.a. “Guanella”) balun at the antenna patch panel. #14 450 ohm ladder line is actually about 370 ohms, according to the manufacturer. A 3 foot coax connects from the patch panel to my homebrew T-match tuner.
For receiving (only), on noisy bands like 40 meters, I use an approximately 400 foot “irregular loop” antenna laid right on the ground; mostly covered by leaves (it’s a 1.15 acre wooded lot). This is also fed by 450 ohm #14 twinlead (~370 ohms). My Drake 2A receiver, in particular, likes this antenna which drops the noise level greatly and makes the signals pop up easily.
I have a project to refurbish an old 40 – 10 meter trap vertical and mount it with the base above 10 feet high, with four elevated radials. I don’t know when I’ll get to this project.
I have two homebrew tuners: One is a classic “T-Match” with a rotary coil and counter. It is connected to the Yaesu transceiver. The second one is a C-L or L-C that is used by the 6L6 or DX-60 transmitters and uses a switch-tapped coil. Both produce a 1:1 match to the Vee antenna on the various bands. The exception is that the T-Match tuner only produces a 1:1.2 match on 80 meters due to excessive internal inductive or capacitance figures (a.k.a. “sloppy wiring”).
Switched inputs for multiple antennas, transmitters, receivers, ground and a dummy load are included in the T-match. A 1:1 T-200 current balun is built into the front end of both tuners for use with ladder line antennas that might bypass the patch panel.
A field strength meter indicates that power is being radiated and not consumed in the tuner. A 500 watt dummy load can also be connected.
A remote-reading infrared thermometer indicates no heating of tuner components which is another good sign that the RF is making it to the antenna and not warming the shack by heating the tuner.
I don’t operate on 160 meters, but 160 meters can also be used if both sides of the Vee’s ladderline are connected together which configures the antenna as a flat-topped “Tee.” This is certainly not an optimal antenna but it works. Note that the feedline thus becomes a radiating element. One of these days I might install a 160M inverted “L” shaped antenna…maybe.
Vertical Antenna. I have recently installed a vertical doublet, that has 20 feet on each side. L.B. Cebik, W4RNL (SK) has analyzed such an antenna and seems to like it. It’s fed with 450 ohm ladder line that terminates into a 1:1 T200-2 Guanella balun, at the tuner or at the patch panel. The bottom end is about 10 feet above ground. I have not had time to compare this antenna’s receiving capability to my VEE or the ground loop or to determine the tuner settings to use on each band, for transmitting and what the transmitted SWR’s might be. Perhaps I can do that this winter. It’s a short vertical doublet so the takeoff angle should be a bit better than the VEE.