new vertical dipole antenna experiment feedback
Getting Murphy out of the way was easier than I thought, but I am not taking any chances and have activated plan B, just in case. A week or two is much to far away to work on a simple antenna like this, so at lunch time today I am half way completed. I am converting my 28-foot 40-meter top and bottom loaded vertical dipole to this single feed line 40/80 vertical dipole.
I had a vision of an alternate layout of this 40/80 single feed line antenna, and this will be tested later down. I envisage this present antenna experiment to be more labour intensive than usual, and I have installed a tilt over base, so that I will not have the hassle of 'storming' the mast/antenna, and 'lashing' it onto the fence any more, nor solicit any XYL assistance when it is breezy. I now have three [3] tilt over masts installed, and they are all spaced 34 feet apart and in line. Coincidence? Maybe not.
In line the three [3] masts/antennas point to Japan and you can compute the broadside directions. I always wanted to play with phased verticals and have yet to experiment with short top and bottom loaded verticals used in a phased array.
To the top of the 35-foot aluminum tubing I have connected the antenna wires, 16-foot long for 40-meters and 46-foot long for 80 meters. These will droop down to the fence or an elevated support mast. I stopped using solid antenna insulators on wire antennas a long time ago to minimize loading and wind resistance. I am quite sure that this antenna will not get away from my fisherman's arbor knot and nylon braid.
The typical top and bottom loaded vertical is visualized as an "H" on the side. This 40/80, two band - one feed line, antenna experiment can take the same visualization, except that the horizontal section on one side of the vertical center section is short, and the horizontal section on the other side of the vertical center section is long. So that the 40-meter antenna is on one side of the center vertical and the 80-meter antenna is on the other. The top and bottom lengths can also be transposed. So, in my case the top and bottom horizontal antenna wire is 62-feet long, and the vertical connecting center section is offset 25% or 75% from one end of it.
An extension of this experiment may be to combine two typical full sized top and bottom loaded vertical dipoles diagonal to each other on the common vertical section. Pretty neat. of course this complicates things if we want to keep the antenna on the fence line and unobtrusive.
It is a killer sun out there so I am going to catch a snack and see if NCIS or James Bond is on USA again today. If I complete this antenna later and test it tonight I will have more to say tomorrow.
I had a vision of an alternate layout of this 40/80 single feed line antenna, and this will be tested later down. I envisage this present antenna experiment to be more labour intensive than usual, and I have installed a tilt over base, so that I will not have the hassle of 'storming' the mast/antenna, and 'lashing' it onto the fence any more, nor solicit any XYL assistance when it is breezy. I now have three [3] tilt over masts installed, and they are all spaced 34 feet apart and in line. Coincidence? Maybe not.
In line the three [3] masts/antennas point to Japan and you can compute the broadside directions. I always wanted to play with phased verticals and have yet to experiment with short top and bottom loaded verticals used in a phased array.
To the top of the 35-foot aluminum tubing I have connected the antenna wires, 16-foot long for 40-meters and 46-foot long for 80 meters. These will droop down to the fence or an elevated support mast. I stopped using solid antenna insulators on wire antennas a long time ago to minimize loading and wind resistance. I am quite sure that this antenna will not get away from my fisherman's arbor knot and nylon braid.
The typical top and bottom loaded vertical is visualized as an "H" on the side. This 40/80, two band - one feed line, antenna experiment can take the same visualization, except that the horizontal section on one side of the vertical center section is short, and the horizontal section on the other side of the vertical center section is long. So that the 40-meter antenna is on one side of the center vertical and the 80-meter antenna is on the other. The top and bottom lengths can also be transposed. So, in my case the top and bottom horizontal antenna wire is 62-feet long, and the vertical connecting center section is offset 25% or 75% from one end of it.
An extension of this experiment may be to combine two typical full sized top and bottom loaded vertical dipoles diagonal to each other on the common vertical section. Pretty neat. of course this complicates things if we want to keep the antenna on the fence line and unobtrusive.
It is a killer sun out there so I am going to catch a snack and see if NCIS or James Bond is on USA again today. If I complete this antenna later and test it tonight I will have more to say tomorrow.
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