HF radio advise please

miky · 23rd November 2009, 10:47 PM

The thing to remember with a tuner is that they are designed so that the transmitter will be looking at 50 Ohms.
If you use a couple of feet of wet string, a good tuner will do it's thing so the transmitter is looking at 50 Ohms. So the transmitter is happy and will feed full power into the tuner/wet string. But do you really believe that all that power is being efficiently radiated?

Far far better to get a resonant antenna on the frequency you are using.

You can also connect it to a long wire for better signals if you are parked (I carry a long wire with an alligator clip connected to one end and a piece of rope tied to the other. Clip the alligator clip to the top of the whip antenna and throw the rope over a tree then you have a long wire antenna that the tuner will work with - this gives much better performance).

I agree with that use of a tuner...