Now many of you may think WIRE antennas are the preserve of the HF bands.
Well not so. I have a "long" wire here that gets used
on 2 m - and for this some form of ATU is handy - here is a simple
one I made.
It has 2x100-pF Variable Capacitors (because that is what I had at the
time) and the coils are 5 turns on a 5 mm former. As you can see
basically it is a PI configuration (same as is in the MFJ units
- but a fraction of the price).
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It can also act as a stand alone antenna base
for a 1/4 wave or even 5/8 - but you will need some sort of counterpoise
(hence the terminal on side) - and will match/tune (what
ever you want to call it) most 2 m antennas and wires.
The ATU can stand 50 w through this with no problems as it depends
on the Variable Capacitors that are pretty wide spaced. The ATU
may solve a problem (with antenna matching) or allow you to use
a long wire or even a Rhombic if you have room for it.
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