Antenna testing with results. 80 meter OWL doublet vs g5rv.

[ke7trp]

Its a JD, Made in the USA by JD.  I get the parts down the street at the JD dealer. It uses a Kohler engine made in the USA.  They where sold as the "sabre" model of JD tractors and under the scotts name. Not cheap compared to a typical Sears or other tractor (mtd).  This model was used by schools, Churches or any place that needed a step up over a homeowner tractor. The Kohler engine has a steel liner, Oil pump, oil filter and hydralic lifters.  A big step up over an oil slinger motor found in most light duty tractors.

We had a great time running on battery and low power yesterday.  I made pages of contacts on 10, 17, 20, meters and rag chewed into the evening on 80.  Made it to Hawaii, All the way out east, West and up to widbey island and over the australia.  With the FT450's tuner settings set at 150, it will tune those bands in seconds. 

I ran 30 watts most of the time.  The tractor battery never skipped a beat. It had the same voltage after 4 or 5 hours of use and started the tractor exactly the same as it normaly does. The 450 has a volt meter right on the right screen. The battery is 1 month old and I keep it on a Battery tender so it was peaked and fully charged. 

Now I am going to make a battery box with connectors and some storage space for cables, Once that is done, I will take the radio and the dog up north to escape the heat and operate in the pines. 

[KM1H]

Has anyone tried this or modeled with 75 Ohm coax?
And then added a 80M dipole off the same mid point?

With 15M being a fairly decent AM band there should be a way to improve that performance also.

Carl