Random Wire Antennas

[Lil'Yeshua]

Now that I got my MFJ-971,I'd like to experiment with random wire antennas. Some of the sites I've been lists certain wire lengths to shy away from. For my first Random wire antenna I'd like to run one from a tree branch or tower straight to the house/tuner.

 

[Mudfoot]

What frequency are you going to be using this random wire on?

 

[Beetle]

What frequency are you going to be using this random wire on?

If you know that, would the antenna still be "random"?

 

[Mudfoot]

Actually, yes, it would still be a random wire. The actual length is what's supposed to be a "secret". I could have a random wire for use on 80 meter CW, in this case, what does the specific frequency have to do with the random length?

I am suspecting he wants to use his random wire on 11 meters. If so, I suppose it's a good start in his learning phase, but not a good choice for 11 meter performance. I suppose I should have asked "what band".

I've used random wires in the past, but only had decent results when I used a remote tuner. I wouldn't mess with another one unless I had another remote tuner, which I'm currently in the market for anyways.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Since my equipment so far only covers 25.615-30.005 MHz I'll start here. I was looking at those MFG portable QRP transceivers. 80,40,20,17,etc. meters. Length of wire? 45-75 feet long. MFJ says anything over 1/4 wave will do. Here's the MFJ Enterprises link to one of several transceivers that go with the 971 tuner. They even sell brackets to attach the tuner,transceiver,and power supply together.
MFJ Enterprises Inc.
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-9380W