On Nov 26, 2:21 pm, Cecil Moore wrote:
James barrett wrote:
My naive understanding was that I could hang up a 100ft dipole and use
a tuner to transmit on all bands. What bands can I reasonable expect
to transmit on using a 100ft dipole and a tuner?

Make that "all HF bands". 160m is not an HF band.
Also, the dipole must be fed with parallel-line,
ideally open-wire line, for all HF band operation.

W2DU's rule-of-thumb is that a dipole should be
at least 3/8 wavelength on the lowest frequency
of operation.

A 100 ft. dipole can usually be used on 160m,
not as a dipole, but as a Marconi-style fed
system with the transmission line conductors
shorted together and fed against a good radial
ground system.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

I keep reminding myself about the articles I've read about people
using window screens and rain gutters as antennas. ;-) I'll keep
reading and eventually I will understand Antennas. But (there's always
a but) I have to remind myself that my goal is to be able to make
contacts (CW, and eventually phone when I get my General class
license) and for now that means 10m, 15m, 40m and 80m. With that in
mind should my thinking be to put up a dipole for 80m and tune it down
to 10, 15 and 40, or should I go with some other length? Being that we
are near the bottom of the sun spot cycle, which band has the best
chance for making contacts? Maybe I should put up a dipole for that
and then tune it for the others.

If tuning for 160 meters is different than for the HF bands, then I'll
wait until I actually have my General class license before I start
thinking about that.

Jim