The 2 antennas I have used extensively that were a joy and quite inexpensive
were a basic fan dipole and an off-center-fed dipole. The Fan dipole I used
was made as a shortened 80m dipole using a split base loading coil from an
old Gotham vertical in the middle of each leg and positioned as far from the
feedpoint as the available inductance would allow. I hung insulating spacers
every 5-10 feet made from Pleixiglas and theaded some 300 ohm twinlead
through them to hand under the other wire. One leg of the twinlead on each
side was cut for a 40m dipole and the other for 20m. The 40m segment also
resonated nicely on 15m. All the leads were tied together on each side at
the feedpoint, and I used RG-8 coax to feed it, with an rf choke made from 8
turns of the coax immediately after the feedpoint. The whole thing was
designed to fit the available space on the roof of where I lived and
performed great. Good signal reports, no tuner needed, automatic
bandswitching. I initially used it with an NCX-5 tube radio, then upgraded
to a Ten tec Triton I and continiued to use it until I moved.
Later I got interested in Windoms and off-center fed dipoles. I found that
if cut right, they are basically resonant on almost all bands except 15m,
even WARC bands. However, you need a good 4:1 current balun at the feed
point and use of a tuner will help get the SWR below 2:1 if your radio
doesn't like levels higher than that. Nice thing is that they do exhibit
some gain on frequencies higher than the basic length, although it might not
be in the direction you need.
=Vic=
WA4THR
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
To: "'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'" <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: [TenTec] was - "Radiates like Crazy"???? No
From: "Jack Rubin" <jack.rubin@ameritech.net>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 09:42:01 -0500
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
Excuse me for jumping in here, and really, I'm not trying to pour gasoline
on the fire!
I'm a new Tech with an Omni D waiting for me to pass my code test; in the
meantime I'm reading this list and a few others and soaking up a lot of
information (including the fact that various folks have had varying
experiences and often have divergent opinions).
I'm especially interested in this thread because I've yet to install a
"serious" antenna - I've been SWL'ing with a slinky - and I'm looking for an
antenna with the magic combination of low cost, low visual/spousal impact
and good performance. At this point, something like the folded dipole might
make some sense for space reasons, but here's my specific question - has
anyone had experience with the Isotron line of antennas? They are at
http://www.isotronantennas.com/ - not an all-band product but definitely
"stealthy".
Thanks and 73s,
Jack
KC9HVE
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