Dave,
Using aluminum wire is not necessarily bad trade for antenna loading
coils. Its lighter, so you can make the wire diameter larger for the
same weight to compensate for the lower conductivity. AFAIK, Cushcraft
uses aluminum wire in all their traps. Another interesting example is
the KLM linear loaded Yagis. The linear loading stubs that provide the
inductive reactance needed to shorten the elements are made from
aluminum. Electrically, the old KLM 40 meter 4 element Yagi is good
performer.
The Create 3 element 40 meter antenna you mention may be a poor
performer because the designer didn't account for the extra losses of
the aluminum wire when doing the design. If there is a lot of loading
required (elements are very short physically) and the wire diameter is
too small, then I^2*R losses in the inductors will be excessive even
with copper (and all the worse with aluminum). However, that Create
antenna may not play well for other reasons (there is more than one way
to screw-up a Yagi). Wilson built a 3 element full sized 40 meter Yagi
back in the '70s that didn't perform very well if you used the
out-of-the-box dimensions. This is because the design dimensions didn't
compensate for the steep element taper. If the element lengths were
adjusted to take that into account, I understand the antenna worked very
well.
73, Mike W4EF.............
On 9/15/2019 9:34 AM, Dave Thompson wrote:
Gang,
I had a 3 el Create 40 meter beam on a 36 foot boom sold by a California firm
but the beam was made in Japan. The coils were wound with aluminum wire. The
beam sat on top of the ower until I decided my lower wire antenna worked as
well. I bought the 2 el Cushcraft 40 and never looked back. Several locals
bought Create Tri-Baners and they seemed to work well. I asked one KB4J and he
never looked into the coils and he sold the beam when he moved to South GA at
retirement.
Stay away from the original Create beams made in Japan.
73 Dave K4JRB
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