Sunday 12 September 2010

Antenna thoughts

Before winter sets in I am pondering whether to try replacing my Inverted L that I use on 80 and 40 (and 30 metres) with  either a doublet or a dipole. The disadvantage of this is that half of such an antenna would be running through the empty field behind me would not be, as the inverted L is fully contained in my small 10 metres by 10 metres garden. The antenna would have to be supported at its centre in an inverted V style. At an old QTH for a while I used a half size G5RV. It worked fairly well and I even inserted traps and an additional length of wire to allow it to tune up on 80 metres. I didn't have that antenna up for long enough to properly evaluate it, so it may be worth another try.
Long gone are the days when as a young SWL I had a 100 metre long wire, even a 40 metre dipole is too big for my garden!

2 comments:

  1. I also have a field behind me but it's used by lots of dog walkers. I prefer to have my small antennas on my lot. With the winters here if something was to happen to the antenna in the field due to vandalism I would have to wait until spring for repairs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Kevin, I think also about changing the antennas. I will replace my falcon 250B vertical for an end fed dipole mono bander for 20 meter. Though the SWR is perfect of the falcon, I think the efficiency is not good. The end fed dipole is a copy of the Par end fed. Most of the time I work on 40 or 20 meter. For 40 meter I use a Inverted V trapped dipole for 40 and 80 meter. Maybe I changed that antenna also for an end fed dipole only for 40 meter. Good luck, 73 Paul

    ReplyDelete