I've got a newbie question, and will appreciate any suggestions.

I've got a very small sailboat that I want to put my Icom706MkIIG into.
I've got the Icom AH-4 tuner, too. What I need is a small inverted "V"
dipole antenna that I can hoist up the mast, which would work with both 20
and 40 meters. I'm thinking that the poles would be about about 8 feet each
on a 1/4 wave.

So...
1. What should the poles actually be, lengthwise?
2. Can I get 20 and 40 out of a single antenna (with tuner)?
3. Do I need to create a copper ground plane in the hull if I use a dipole?
4. Will a 1/4 wave antenna let me use the maximum power of the
radio?(100watts).

Thanks,
Bill

"William Longyard" wrote in message
...
I've got a newbie question, and will appreciate any suggestions.

I've got a very small sailboat that I want to put my Icom706MkIIG into.
I've got the Icom AH-4 tuner, too. What I need is a small inverted "V"
dipole antenna that I can hoist up the mast, which would work with both 20
and 40 meters. I'm thinking that the poles would be about about 8 feet
each on a 1/4 wave.

So...
1. What should the poles actually be, lengthwise?
2. Can I get 20 and 40 out of a single antenna (with tuner)?
3. Do I need to create a copper ground plane in the hull if I use a
dipole?
4. Will a 1/4 wave antenna let me use the maximum power of the
radio?(100watts).

Thanks,
Bill

You don't need a ground plane for a dipole, but for a boat, I would look at
shortened verticals. What do you mean by "pole"?

Tam/WB2TT

On Dec 28, 5:32 pm, "William Longyard"
wrote:
I've got a newbie question, and will appreciate any suggestions.

I've got a very small sailboat that I want to put my Icom706MkIIG into.
I've got the Icom AH-4 tuner, too. What I need is a small inverted "V"
dipole antenna that I can hoist up the mast, which would work with both 20
and 40 meters. I'm thinking that the poles would be about about 8 feet each
on a 1/4 wave.

So...
1. What should the poles actually be, lengthwise?
2. Can I get 20 and 40 out of a single antenna (with tuner)?
3. Do I need to create a copper ground plane in the hull if I use a dipole?
4. Will a 1/4 wave antenna let me use the maximum power of the
radio?(100watts).

Thanks,
Bill

Unless less you are on the baby version of the Queen Mary, I
sort of doubt you have room for full sized 1/2 wave dipoles on
that boat. Maybe 20m... I doubt 40. A full size dipole for 40m
is appx 65 feet long total length. Or about 32 ft per leg, or "pole"
if that is what you mean by pole.
Half that size for 20m.
You might be better off with a vertical. IE: feed your mast as
a vertical, or maybe other ideas could be used. Any dipoles used
may have to be loaded to fit on a very small sailboat.
MK

wrote:
[...]

Love your text, reminds me of ths "stealth" methods I had to use, to use
my humble forms of communications on board "hostile ships" ... ;-)

Regards,
JS

Bill,

The AH4 tuner is spec'd to tune 3.5 MHz to 54 MHz with as little as 23 feet
of wire. With the AH4 tuner, you should be able to work it. What I would
do is mount the tuner at the base of the mast. Get enough twin lead to
reach the top of the mast and then enough wire to reach from the top of the
mast to whatever tie off points you have for the lower part of the inverted
vee. You can build your own twin lead with wire and spacers or buy some.
Connect one side of the twin lead to the signal post and the other to the
ground post of the tuner. Solder the wires to the opposite end of the twin
lead and attach that to a strain relief that you could hoist up the mast.
Tie off the loose wire ends and see what happens. If you end up with
un-equal lengths of wire to tie off, connect the longer side to the ground
end of the tuner.

There are a few lengths that that the tuner can't tune (look at the manual
as I don't have mine handy). Remember, the vertical (twinlead) portion of
the antenna is part of the wire length so make sure to take that into
account.

Tom - AC9TS


"William Longyard" wrote in message
...
I've got a newbie question, and will appreciate any suggestions.

I've got a very small sailboat that I want to put my Icom706MkIIG into.
I've got the Icom AH-4 tuner, too. What I need is a small inverted "V"
dipole antenna that I can hoist up the mast, which would work with both 20
and 40 meters. I'm thinking that the poles would be about about 8 feet
each on a 1/4 wave.

So...
1. What should the poles actually be, lengthwise?
2. Can I get 20 and 40 out of a single antenna (with tuner)?
3. Do I need to create a copper ground plane in the hull if I use a
dipole?
4. Will a 1/4 wave antenna let me use the maximum power of the
radio?(100watts).

Thanks,
Bill