Steve's New 80 Meter Antenna (2007)

I decided to use 14 gauge stranded house wire since it was a lot cheaper than the 10 gauge wire.  It has held up well in the wind.  There are only two pieces of wire and the only connection is at the center where it is soldered to the ladder line.  Basically it is a straight 40 meter dipole between two palm trees and then the ends droop down a bit to make it an 80 meter dipole.  The overall shape is a lazy "Z".
The center support is a  the chimney at the rear of the residence.  It is a steel pipe and the top is a tee made from PVC.  The rear (north) palm tree for the 40 meter support is visible.  Also, the vertical end support is visible in front of the red roof. This is a view of the front (south) side of the dipole.  The 40 meter inner part goes to the large palm tree.  Then the wire continues to the smaller palm tree where it ends.
This shows the north side of the dipole up to the palm tree. This shows the pole at the corner of the property for the end of the dipole.
North end of the dipole support. Actually, this support is an old 900 mHz antenna from a large commercial tower installation.
This support is held up with an 8 foot piece of 3" PVC pipe that it lag bolted to the dock. This is a view of the center support and the ladder line.  The radio shack is in the sun room.
Detail of the PVC pipe insulator at the rear palm tree. Detail of the center support.
Ladder line approaching the shack. Exterior wall adjacent to shack. Here I switch from 450 ladder line to coax.  The coax is kept under 6 foot in length to minimize high loss in the coax.  I use a 1 to 1 current balun as the transformation device between the two different feed lines.  I used this setup for several years and it works fine.  We still use it for Field Day every year.  The advantage is that you can use a regular tuner to get the impedance down to 50 Ohms.
Radio Works B1-4K 1:1 current balun.  Note the rope to keep the banana plugs from pulling out.  They now a B1-5K that I would purchase if I needed to today. Inside the shack.
MFJ-949E manual tuner, an MFJ-209 analyzer with a homemade PIC chip frequency counter, and a homemade switch.  The SWR is nulled here and then touched up with the auto tuner in the radio. Desk arrangement. 1986 Steel Case corner desk with hutch.  Main rig for Army MARS is a Kenwood TS-480 SAT.
I now do not use the 1:1 balun and the run of coax.  I use two 1/4 inch stainless steel rods through the side of the house to get the balanced line signal into the shack.  I use 450 Ohm window line at the inside and outside of the installation.  This requires the use of a balanced line tuner. I ha ve a home made tuner made from  capacitors from the small Johnson Matchbox.  I also have a large kiloWatt Johnson matchbox that works well.  They are shown below.
Home made link coupled tuner.   For details see  Link Coupled Tuner KiloWatt Johnson matchbox.  Note the feed line attachment at the wall.

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