When I dressed the feedline straight down from the UnUn, the SWR was not good and the lower two HF bands (160 & 80) were unusable. The feedline dressing is critical, in fact. Then I dressed it down under the "counterpoise" bisecting the vertical and the horizontal, approximately hanging down 45-degress from and underneath the counterpoise, it was usable on 80 & 40M. I also included a W2AU 1:1 Balun that uses ferrite beads and this was enough to make the antenna usable all across the HF bands plus 6M. While the SWR is less than 2:1 all across the bands, I still use the rig's internal tuner to finesse the system. Keep in mind that the feedline from the unun to the balun is an active part of the antenna and serves as the other end of the dipole. Some have shown theoretically that the counterpoise can be as little as 3-1/2 ft but they are disregarding the action of the coax being the counterpoise or other end of the dipole. The antenna MUST have a reference end, it cannot be used without a ground or counterpoise.

The wire used is common #14 house wire for the 16-ft counterpoise and for the 53-ft section. The 20-ft of feedline connected between the 1:1 Balun and the 9:1 UnUn is composed of an 18-ft RG-8X line which is connected to a 2-ft RG-58 pigtail coming out of the UnUn which totals 20-ft. The feedline to the shack is RG-8.

Bob — KK5R