The home-made vertical

This was made for 70 MHz (without matching). The FC-40 matches it usably on 40m (< 1.5), 30m (1:1), 20m (1:1, but need to retune across the band), 17m (1:1), 15m (1.25), 12m (1:1) and 10m (1.1).

The 6m (50 MHz to 52 MHz) varies across the band from 1:1 to 1:2 (at 51MHz). Using 1:2 at reduced power is safe, and probably fine at full power on the FT817ND and FTdx10.

At 70.250 MHz the vertical aerial is poorer on the pole at 1:2 SWR than on the test set-up, so I’ll see can it be improved when the weather is better.

160m is unusable high SWR; it’s about 1.25 on the long wire at 1.85 MHz
80m is unusable high SWR; it’s about 1:1 on the long wire at 3.75 MHz
60m is unusable high SWR; it’s about 1:1.25 on the long wire on the lowest channel.

Any whip/vertical on the FC-40 is only for 7 MHz to 54 MHz, not lower, though the ATAS-120 can do VHF/UHF with a suitable radio. It’s motorised, so not used with the FC-40. The vertical / mobile whip for the FC-40 is the YA-007 which is 2.5 m long.  My vertical is about 3.5 m long. I experimented with a 7m vertical, but it still didn’t tune 80m band. The recommended minimum length for 160m to 6m with the FC-40 is 20m+, not simple for a vertical. My long wire is perhaps just a little more than 20m long. Exactly 20m would be bad as the FC-40 can’t tune a half-wave aerial.