It sounds like you have done everything right. I just am not sure about the ground. For one thing it matters how much power you are running. You can get away with a lot more with low power. I assume you will be transmitting on this antenna? For end fed long wires, some lengths are better than others. In some cases 1/4 wave needs no tuner. In cases where the antenna is 1/2 wave long it is a very high impedance and difficult to match. In between cases where the impedance is a “moderate” amount are usually easy to match. So turning the length can usually help in most cases. Trying to make one length of wire tune on multiple bands is not easy. Sometimes a counterpoise is needed and sometimes not, depending on the frequency. In most cases where the radio chassis is “hot” with RF adding a 1/4 wave counterpoise solves the problem. At that frequency. Nor sure what running around the fence means. It should held be off the fence with insulators. With the wire near anything it will have some effect, almost always a negative effect. My usual advice is to use a L network configuration tuner as they are foolproof with no possibility of mistuning. If you are only receiving that’s a different story. With antennas longer is not always better. The best simple antenna, actually the best antenna is a halfwave long dipole. Once you get much longer than that you get bad patterns. Lots of nulls and can get radiation from the wire canceling itself. Horizontal loops are not usually any better than a straight halfwave wire. The exception being if the geometry of the loop is such that it can form a pinpoint high gain beam in one or two narrow directions. That case is very special and most of us want wider coverage. Did I answer the question?

Thanks for the comment. Glad you liked the video but not sure where I used foot wrong. A tree is 20 feet high but I have a 20 foot ladder. I have a 20 foot long wire but the wire is 20 feet. I think 20 foot is an adjective and is singular but used as a noun it is 20 feet which is plural. For measurements we often use singular. I said 120 foot dipole. I said 60 feet high or at 60 feet. I guess I could have said 60 foot high or at 60 foot. As an adjective it follows the singular rule. Saying at 60 feet I am following the noun rule as it is the object of a preposition. English is complicated, so I may be wrong. Wish I had my old English books handy!

Yes. I think you have it. Typically with the Heathkit SWR meters and most others also, you set the meter to full scale in the forward or “set “ position then switch to reflected power or the “SWR” position to read the SWR. Also the sensitivity needs to be set high enough that you can see the dip in SWR when you tune the tuner with low power. You probably will need to turn the sensitivity back when you want to read SWR with full power or you might peg the meter. You need to be careful tuning these T network tuners. You could obtain a low or 1:1 SWR without all the power being delivered to the antenna. In that case the tuner heats up! I will watch this video again and see if I address that. If not I will add instructions here.

Yes at the 1:10 minute point I start addressing how to tune the tuner correctly.

@@dandypoint Thanku sooo much!! I believe I understand. Set the sensitivity to max on the dial, even though the needle is past the set mark, so that at low power, I can see a dip in swr…..Then I shld calibrate the needle to the set mark at max(100 watts)and then proceed to adjust all dials at for a final swr, and then talk away!

@@WILLIAMPERRELLI I think you have it. I usually like to tune for minimum SWR with fairly low power but with the sensitivity high enough to get a good dip. It takes more power and/ or the sensitivity set higher for 80 meters than the higher bands. Once you get the SWR as low as you can then check it by pressing SET and setting the forward power to the set mark. Then press the SWR to get the reading. Also if the forward power is 100 watts and the reflected power is 10 watts you have almost a 2:1 SWR. When running 100 watts I monitor reflected power to be sure it is less than 10 watts and I know my SWR is better than 2:1. In fact anytime your reflected power is 10% of your forward power you have about a 2:1 SWR. I run 500 watts in contests, so I keep reflected power at or below 50 watts.

@@dandypoint I really appreciate this!!! Billy

Maybe. More parts and wires. The main thing is to have a low loss matching system from 50 ohm coax to whatever the antenna terminals are. Typical load is near 50 +J350 (R=50 and XL =350) you don’t know for sure exactly but that’s ballpark. If R is near 50 all you need to do is cancel the inductive reactance to get only the real resistance. Anywhere from R=25 to R = 100 will give you a 2:1 SWR. Closer to 50 and the better the SWR and the wider your bandwidth between SWR 2:1 points. I have used an L network at the base and that works good. I think a good quality series capacitor will be the least loss. But any good matching device should work.

@@dandypoint Awesome. I'm setting up an inverted L for 160. I should be able to get 50 to 75 feet of vertical section....#10 wire. Jeff W3AAB

@@jwnagy that’s great on the height! A quarter wave will work but I think going longer has some benefits so I went to about 3/8 wave or 165 feet or so. Exact SWR will depend on length of wire and the ground resistance but losses are minimal on 160 due to SWR as long as the transmitter can load it. My Drake L7 is happy with as high as a 2:1 SWR. In a 160 contest I even will go higher in the band than my 2:1 point and it’s still doing fine with the original 1980’s tubes still going!

@@dandypoint I'm shooting for being centralized at 1.9. I just ordered the Mastraint rope from DX engineering, which should arrive mid week. The tree guy is coming out next Saturday to trim my tree and install some pulleys for me. Maybe done by end of March.

Yes, an inverted L can be done many ways and matched with a single series coil, a single series capacitor, or a couple forms of L network as you noted. I just chose this way as simple, and had the parts handy. I have also done it with an L network and without any components just a quarter wave wire. Then all work. You might check out my video on the inverted L and why I like to go longer than a quarter wave. This is a classic design recommended to me by W1BB himself. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TKSe0cQKMBs.htmlsi=Amsx44-vzkLgBbhC

@@dandypoint from the mobile, not movie. Typical AS (articficisl stupidity spelling auto correction

Your truck on QRZ looks exactly like mine!

@@dandypoint yes 73¡¡¡ CE3MSB

Thanks 👍

Yes, I am using the vacuum variable in the box at the base of the inverted L. There may have been only one or two stations I heard that I could not work. I ran a lot.

Thanks!

I think using Coax 1 or Coax 2 puts the tuner in the circuit between the input coax jack and Coax 1 or Coax 2, so unless the tuner is properly tuned there will be a loss in signal, both received and transmitted. In the bypass position then I would not expect any signal loss in either direction. I am not sure what you mean about checking continuity. There should not be any DC continuity between the input and coax 1 or 2 output so I am guessing you could not have done that. It you did get continuity then the capacitors would have to be shorted. The tuner is a T network with two capacitors in series and the inductor connects from the junction of the two caps to ground. Consequently (unlike a L network) it’s possible to mis tune the tuner and still have a low SWR. Since there are more than one possible settings for a 1:1 SWR , you should always use the one that had the most capacitance in the circuit. I think that is in the manual. I no longer have my tuner so I can’t refer to the manual but I am 99.9 % sure what I said about using max capacitance is in the manual. The manual also had some recommended settings for each band to use as a starting point.

@@SummitBidTech Yes, the RF path in coax 1 and 2 is through the T network both ways. It should make a big difference in some cases. The tuner set one way can present a very high impedance to one frequency and a very low impedance at another frequency. Matching impedances is a rather complex process. I did find a pre set chart. On most bands the first cap is set around 50, the inductor 58 and the second or antenna cap is set near 50. In general the inductor should be set in the 300 range for 160, the 100 range for 80, the 50 range for 40 , 25 range for 20, the 16 range for 15 and 10 meters. The exact setting will vary depending on the antenna impedance. Do you have the manual?

@@SummitBidTech No, I don’t think so. 3:1 is not really a bad SWR in most cases, however the new (I say new but really mean the solid state rigs that essentially replaced the classic tube rigs) rigs are built to see a 2:1 or preferably better SWR. So as long as the internal “tuner” can handle it you should be fine. Don’t forget that you have to spend a bit of time tweaking the capacitors and coil to get the SWR down near 1:1. You may be able to get it better on 160, but I don’t know what you are trying to tune. What is a near 50 ohm impedance on one frequency may be several thousand ohms on another frequency! There are several things at work here. First the antenna itself has an impedance at its fundamental frequency. It has a completely different impedance as you move away from that frequency. The feedline (coax in most cases) always acts as a transformer unless it is exactly 1/2 wavelength or a multiple of 1/2 wavelength long. So the input to the coax could be anything depending on frequency, length, and characteristics of the antenna. The tuner may or may not be able to match that. In cases where the antenna is near 50 ohms, the tuner can most always handle that. In cases where the antenna and coax are not closely matched there will be a high SWR. For example if the SWR is 6:1 we can have the following situations. 6:1 SWR in 50 ohm coax means the actual impedance at the antenna is either 300 or 8.3 ohms. If the coax is exactly 1/2 wave the impedance at the input of the coax will be the same as at the antenna. However if the coax is 1/4 wave (or an odd multiple such as 3/4 wave) the impedance at the input to the coax will be totally different. If the impedance was 300 the coax will transform it down to 8.3 BUT if the impedance was 8.3 the coax would transform it up to 300. Any length of coax between 1/4 and 1/2 wave would give an impedance somewhere between those two extremes. Also there will be reactance introduced anytime the antenna is not resonant and frequently it’s the reactance that the tuners have a hard time with. Depending on length of coax the reactance can quickly change from being inductive to capacitive. So sometimes if a tuner can’t handle load, changing the coax length will change the impedance enough so the tuner will work. As I said it’s a very complex situation. Understanding the Smith chart is frequently the only way to get a handle on what is going on, at least for me the Smith Chart is what helped me fully understand this stuff! If you are not familiar with that process look it up. I also have a video here on RU-vid that explains it a little.

@@dandypoint Thanks again. I'll check out your smith chart video. I'm having to relearn a lot of stuff that I may or may not have fully understood when I was an active ham back in the mid to late 1980s. I just got back into ham radio and it's great that now there are so many great resources like your channel. Many others too. I purchased a nanoVNA and am learning to use it. I think it's a great instrument for characterizing antennas and feedlines. I believe it has a smith chart mode too I'll have to investigate. Thanks again! 73 de W0DCO (formerly NL7FU)

Thanks!

It sure does! I put that Ranger II and Drake 2B on AM in 1963. Mostly 160, 20 and 10 meters. Sure glad I could hold on to them for 60 years this month!

All three of my 20 and 10 meter dipoles are around 40 feet. That seems to be a good height. Just above a half wave on 20 and just over a full wave on 10.

Thanks!

Thanks! You did exactly right! Not sure why a full wave loop at only 60 foot should beat you, except on short skip where it’s high angle dominates his pattern. I have done well with my configuration in contests and it got me 160 DXCC many years ago when it was a bit harder. Have fun! 73, Don N4DJ

Thanks. Looks like you have a good setup!

I use DeoxIT for all contacts.