Project was originally published in QST June(?) 2009 article -
"No-Excuses" 160 Meter Vertical - written by K6MM.
He has a website and a pdf of the article is available for download there.
The antenna uses 3 sections of PVC telescoped for overall height of 24 feet.
Also has a square capacitance hat.
I used 14 awg solid wire for the helical wrap and also have 8 ground radials
approximately 125 feet each (~ 1/4 wavelength).
Measured SWR bandwith is better than I had expected: less than 2.1:1
over 80 KHz (expected 50 KHz).
Of course using a tuner will allow for a wider range of operation.
After our initial test after 2m net a couple of weeks ago I adjusted the resonant
frequency down to 1.85 MHz for operating in some of the contests.
I used it this weekend in the CQ WW 160m CW Contest and made 105 QSOs in 38 states,
5 Provinces, plus several Bahamas & Puerto Rico.
Pretty pleased with these results, especially considering power output was about 80-90 watts.
Thanks,
Mark Hirschy
KA9FQG