James barrett wrote:

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.

Hey Jim,

Using one of those tuners is very simple. (mostly)

Assuming you are using ladder or window line,(not only a good
assumption, but a good idea) put up as much wire as high as you can.

The "mostly" part is that you don't want the wires to be 1/4 wavelength
total on any of the bands you are going to operate. I think the MFJ
manuals point out some lengths you don't want to use.

All this is to say that if you can put say 96 feet of wire in the air,
that is what you put up. Such an antenna will work a treat on 40 and up,
decently on 80 meters, and almost so-so on 160.

You are ready. Get a couple buds, your slingshot or favorite method of
launching fishing line into the air, and put up that dipole. Run the
window line to the house, avoiding running it too near to metal objects,
say keep it around 4 inches away. Connect it to the balanced line input
on the tuner, go coax to the rig, and there you have it. Make sure you
do the grounding thing correctly, but that's another subject.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -