I absolutely and completely agree with Ken, despite having only half of his
experience. (30 years, and only two towers - 100' & 125' with six rotatable beams). The old fashioned open wire dipole - doublet to our UK brethren - when fed with a proper balanced tuner - is extremely efficient and effective. Read what Maxwell has to say about them in his book "Reflections", or look at results with an antenna modelling program. The 80m dipole at 65', when used on the higher bands, will have gain equal to a 3 element yagi in its favored directions. 73, Mike Cizek W3MC [hidden email] FOC # 1739 HSC # 1849 ----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Kopp To: [hidden email] Sent: Wednesday, 21 February, 2007 19:48 Subject: [Elecraft] Evaluating antennas Given all the discussion about the various antennas .... I do wire antenna seminars at conventions and hamfests, and usually in some way tell my audience the following: NO antenna is ever high enough! (:-) Many years ago ... 50+ ... I put up (too) many antennas in the quest for the perfect radiator, and I offer the following observation. No antenna should be "written off" without a long period of evaluation ... perhaps several weeks or more. At the time I was in hot pursuit of "something better" and would change an antenna too often ... even from one day to the next. I eventually learned that there are many factors that can influence how well antenna will work for you. I didn't understand about the fickle ways of the propogation gods, sunspots, the antenna's surroundings, etc. and that these factors will deternine how your new antenna will work to a greater degree than what "kind" of antenna it is. I have four 100' towers and some of today's "best" antennas fed with "hardline", but if I had to choose only one it would be the 80M half-wave at 65' that's fed with home-made open wire and a Johnson Matchbox. 73! Ken Kopp - K0PP [hidden email] or [hidden email] Ken Kopp - K0PP [hidden email] or [hidden email] _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com Mike Cizek W3MC [hidden email] FOC # 1739 HSC # 1849 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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