"Ken Bessler" wrote in message news:...

My current antenna is a modified Van Gordon "All Bander".
For reference, the stock antenna is 134' of 14g stranded
bare copper fed with 100' of 450 ohm ladder line. I cut off
half of the ladder line and replaced it with a 12 turn, 5-1/4"
rg58 coil. 20 feet of rg58 goes from the coil into the shack.
I then trimmed the antenna to 7.175 mhz.

The antenna is a flat dipole up 20'. Seems to work OK but
I've got the itch to improve it. The feed point is 12" above
the peak of my roof. I was thinking about installing a 5' tripod
and 2 ten foot masts to elevate the antenna's feed point and
convert it into an inverted V. There will be no need to add to
the feedline.


snip


Well, it's up guys! The apex is about 40' and the ends are 28'.
Comparing it to my other antennas I'm seeing about a 1-1/2 to
2 S unit improvement on 40m and more on the higher bands.

I did a SWR plot before and after changing it and here's the
sticking point: Before, I had a 2:1 range from 6.900-7.280 and
now I've got 7.000-7.300 but the minimum SWR went from
1.10:1 to 1.55:1. My Elecraft KAT2 autotuner handles that very
easily but I'm wondering what would happen if I added 12 feet
to my 50' of 450 ohm ladder line? Would the minimum SWR
get better or just move? Or both? Does it really matter? (I don't
think it matters based on what I've read here).

Ken

--
Just my 2¢... 73 es gd dx de Ken KGØWX
Grid EM17ip, Flying Pigs #-1055
Proud builder & owner of Elecraft K2 #4913