On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:33:31 +0000, Larry wrote:

Hi Larry,

On another issue you have brought up, you said you had two backstays in
parallel, one with insulators that is the antenna and one that is not and
is solidly connected to the mast, right??

Correct. as advised by a rigger who was using a rule of thumb, the top
insulator is 3 feet down from the seperation point.

If this is so, in close proximity to the radiating element, that second
backstay is simply absorbing a major part of your radiation from the real
antenna, greatly reducing your actual field strength at some remote
receiver. We can't stop induced, out of phase, RF currents in any of the
rigging, but you can reduce it, greatly, giving you a nicely stronger
signal.

If these backstays are as I think, please consider putting insulators at
equal distance in BOTH backstays,not just one. Then, run a jumper
between upper end of the bottom insulators, effectively paralleling them.
Feed the tuner into the CENTER of this jumper, which can also be two
equal-length wires from the HV output of the tuner to the two insulator
feedpoints. The effect of doing this is a radiator that is MUCH greater
in "virtual diameter", both radiating IN PHASE, which aids their field
strength. Instead of the second backstay absorbing the signal, it will
create more signal, in phase. If your tuner is below them, you can
either make a T to feed the two backstays or just Y them out of the
tuner, itself, with EQUAL LENGTH conductors to preserve their phase
relationship.

Larry