thanks for that. Yes to both comments. I do use the 703's built in tuner
which is remarkable....and reversing the wire connections has worked for me
too, when the antenna wouldn't tune on a specific band.

73Hi Mike,


Ron Miller


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Mike Duke, K5XU
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 1:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: No counterpoise antenna

"Do you connect the short wire to ground?"

Ultimately, the answer to this question is yes, but it is done through 
the balun.

As described earlier, each of the two wires are connected to the two 
binding posts or terminals on the antenna side of the 4 to 1 balun, or 
to the binding post on a tuner such as the MFJ models that have a 
built in balun.

One trick which will sometimes resolve difficult tuning issues with an 
antenna of this type on a given frequency is to reverse the two wires 
at the balun. I had to do that occasionally when I was running an end 
fed zep, which is basically what this antenna is. Also, while it is 
true that the shorter of the two wires acts as a counterpoise, you may 
still find that a counterpoise wire attached to the ground terminal of 
the tuner will smooth out some tuning issues, especially if the tuner 
isn't grounded to the earth.