Six-meter Antenna Tuner

[Hank Garretson]

Since it is part of the K3 package, I would like to try six
meters.  My one and only antenna is an eighty-meter dipole 46 feet
above ground fed with poly ladder-line.  I'm looking for suggestions
for a 100-watt coupler that will tune a balanced-feedline antenna at
50 MHz.  I do not have the K3 ATU and am looking for something
considerably less expensive.

All ideas are welcome, but please don't suggest some other
antenna.  My antenna is what it is.  Because of town esthetics and
very harsh winter weather I'm lucky to have the antenna at all.


73,

Hank, W6SX

Mammoth Lakes, California

Elevation 8083 feet in John Muir's Range of Light

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[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy]

Hank,

My suggestion is use a classic link coupled balanced "antenna tuner". If you
cannot find one to buy the cost of building one for 6m at the 100w power
level should not be very high. The third edition of 'The Radio Amateur's VHF
Manual' (ARRL) contains a couple of examples for use at other power levels,
please let me know off-list if you would like to see these.

An eighty metre dipole should work well on 6m in certain directions, after
all it is a centre fed 7 wavelength (approx) longwire at 6m. The horizontal
pattern should have 4 narrow major lobes, 10 narrow secondary lobes and deep
nulls off the ends.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD


W6SX Hank Garretson wrote on Monday, December 08, 2008 at 3:23 AM

> Since it is part of the K3 package, I would like to try six meters.  My
> one and only antenna is an eighty-meter dipole 46 feet above ground fed
> with poly ladder-line.  I'm looking for suggestions for a 100-watt coupler
> that will tune a balanced-feedline antenna at 50 MHz.  I do not have the
> K3 ATU and am looking for something considerably less expensive.
>
> All ideas are welcome, but please don't suggest some other antenna.  My
> antenna is what it is.  Because of town esthetics and very harsh winter
> weather I'm lucky to have the antenna at all.

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[Greg - AB7R]

Or just buile a resonant antenna for 6M.  I found some simple plans for building a nice and sturdy 2-
element moxon that has been working just great form me on 6M.  It does not have to be up very high and
you can turn it with a simple lightweight TV rotor.  No tuner needed with it 50.0-52.0 MHz.

-------------------------
73,
Greg - AB7R
Whidbey Island WA
NA-065


On Mon Dec  8  4:10 , "Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy"  sent:

>Hank,
>
>My suggestion is use a classic link coupled balanced "antenna tuner". If you
>cannot find one to buy the cost of building one for 6m at the 100w power
>level should not be very high. The third edition of 'The Radio Amateur's VHF
>Manual' (ARRL) contains a couple of examples for use at other power levels,
>please let me know off-list if you would like to see these.
>
>An eighty metre dipole should work well on 6m in certain directions, after
>all it is a centre fed 7 wavelength (approx) longwire at 6m. The horizontal
>pattern should have 4 narrow major lobes, 10 narrow secondary lobes and deep
>nulls off the ends.
>
>73,
>Geoff
>GM4ESD
>
>
>W6SX Hank Garretson wrote on Monday, December 08, 2008 at 3:23 AM
>
>> Since it is part of the K3 package, I would like to try six meters.  My
>> one and only antenna is an eighty-meter dipole 46 feet above ground fed
>> with poly ladder-line.  I'm looking for suggestions for a 100-watt coupler
>> that will tune a balanced-feedline antenna at 50 MHz.  I do not have the
>> K3 ATU and am looking for something considerably less expensive.
>>
>> All ideas are welcome, but please don't suggest some other antenna.  My
>> antenna is what it is.  Because of town esthetics and very harsh winter
>> weather I'm lucky to have the antenna at all.
>
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: [hidden email]
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   
>
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com

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[Hank Garretson]

Thank you to all who responded, both on and off list, to my
request.  First thing I'll try is my two commercial tuners with
roller inductors.  As suggested, they just might work.  If not, I
have found link-coupled designs in Bill Orr's 1967 Radio Handbook and
the 1949 ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook (cover price $2.00!) that
should be easy to scale to six meters.  Thanks everyone.


73,

Hank, W6SX

Mammoth Lakes, California

Elevation 8083 feet in John Muir's Range of Light

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