{"id":2560,"date":"2023-09-27T17:32:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T16:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2023-09-27T17:32:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T16:32:09","slug":"making-my-160m-inverted-l-into-a-multi-band-antenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/?p=2560","title":{"rendered":"Making my 160m Inverted-L into a Multi band Antenna"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently put up a 38m Inverted-L antenna<\/a> (10m vertical\/28m horizontal) and tuned it on the 160m band using a home-brew Pi-Network ATU. It’s working great on top band and I’m really pleased with performance so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided today that it would be good to try the inverted-L out on some of the other low bands too. Since my other HF antenna is a large vertical that’s great for DXing but, terrible for Inter-G I thought perhaps the Inverted-L would fill the inter-G gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"M0AWS
M0AWS Pi-Network ATU using my JNCRadio VNA to find the ATU setting for each band<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having recently purchased a JNCRadio VNA<\/a> from Martin Lynch and Sons<\/a> it made tuning the ATU for each band really easy. When it comes to antenna resonance I like my antennas to have an SWR of less than 1.2:1. With the VNA connected it is really easy to tune the antenna for a 1:1 SWR on a particular frequency, make a note of the tune information and then move to the next frequency and start again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"M0AWS
M0AWS Pi-Network ATU Inductor with turns count<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"M0AWS
M0AWS Pi-Network ATU Capacitor 1 and 2 settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I marked up each turn on the large copper inductor so I could record the position of the input wire onto the inductor. I then added some markings on the two capacitors of the Pi-Network ATU for the resonance points on each band\/frequency I wanted to resonate the antenna on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"M0AWS
M0AWS Pi-Network ATU settings noted for each band<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After about 40mins I had all the settings recorded on a pad ready for testing from the shack end of the coax run. Connecting my Yaesu FTDX10<\/a> to the coax I ran through each band setting checking the SWR as I went. All bands tuned up perfectly 160m through 30m and receiving of Inter-G on the bands that were active was excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wanting to test the antenna on 40m for the first time I found Nick, M7NHC<\/a> calling CQ and gave him a call using just 5w output. He came straight back to me and we had a quick chat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick was using an Icom IC-7300 using just 10w into an end-fed long wire from Eastbourne down on the south coast so, we were both QRP. Nick was a 5\/7 with QSB and he gave me a 5\/8 with QSB, not bad at all consider how much power we were using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m hoping to have a chat with some of the guys from the Matrix<\/a> this evening on 60m SSB so, it will be interesting to see how the antenna performs on 5Mhz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More soon …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently put up a 38m Inverted-L antenna (10m vertical\/28m horizontal) and tuned it on the 160m band using a home-brew Pi-Network ATU. It’s working great on top band and I’m really pleased with performance so far. I decided today that it would be good to try the inverted-L out on some of the other … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Making my 160m Inverted-L into a Multi band Antenna”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,33,29,80,69,225,6,28,253,257,4,65,254,256,251,224,85,15,252,110,227,226,232,233],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-160m-band","category-30m-band","category-40m-band","category-60m-band","category-80m-band","category-analyser","category-antenna","category-antenna-modelling","category-atu","category-capacitor","category-ham-radio","category-home-brew","category-impedance","category-inductor","category-inverted-l","category-jncradio","category-mls","category-mlands","category-pi-network-atu","category-station","category-swr","category-tuning","category-vna","category-vna-3g"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2560"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m0aws.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}