Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] Do I need an insulator on the ends of my

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Do I need an insulator on the ends of my
From: jimlux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2020 11:24:48 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 6/27/20 8:19 AM, Jim Thomson wrote:
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 21:33:25 -0700
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Do I need an insulator on the ends of my
dipole?

On 6/26/2020 11:07 AM, Kevin Zembower via TowerTalk wrote:
Why do I need an insulator?

<Because the open end of an antenna is a high voltage point, and when the
<rope that holds it is wet, the RF can melt it and the antenna will fall
<down. Ask me how I know. :)  If instead it's connected to an insulated
<wire, because it's a high voltage point, the insulation can arc over to
<the wire. The same is true of radials.

<73, Jim K9YC

##  Does anybody know what the  EXACT  peak voltage is....on the ends of a half 
wave dipole,
say with  exactly 1000  watts cxr  applied  to the feedpoint ???   Say a 80m 
dipole up  100  ft... flat swr, fed with coax +  CM choke.

##  what is peak Voltage at various points  along the dipole ??   again with 1 
kw cxr applied.  What happens to peak  V  along the  dipole as swr is increased 
?

it turns out that this is a bit tricky - voltage relative to what?
I ran some quick NEC4 models with a 20 meter long dipole, driven at 7.15 MHz (so it's a bit out of tune) at various heights above the earth (5,10,50 meters).

NEC can sum the electric field along a line, which is the voltage between the ends of the line. I summed 4 lines:
From just under the end of the dipole to the earth (10m)
from mid point (5m)
from near the center (1m)
And, along a line 1cm away from the dipole from end to end.

Here's the results (all excited with 1 Volt)

jimlux, w6rmk, 27 june 2020                             
20m long dipole, 1mm diameter, 1V at feed point at 7.15 MHz, 13/0.005 soil      
        
5m high                 
        Re      Im      Mag
10m     0.70    -2.80   Volts   2.88
5m      0.80    -2.96   Volts   3.07
1m      0.19    -0.65   Volts   0.68
                                
along   9.93    35.37   Volts   36.74
                                
10m off ground                          
        Re      Im              Mag
10m     -0.09   -0.51   Volts   0.52
5m      -0.06   -0.53   Volts   0.53
1m      0.03    -0.12   Volts   0.12
                                
along   0.59    2.45    Volts   2.52
                                
                                
50m off ground
        Re      Im              Mag
10m     3.26    -8.06   Volts   8.70
5m      3.74    -7.86   Volts   8.70
1m      1.52    -1.71   Volts   2.29
                                
along   -0.80   2.45    Volts   2.58



For what it's worth, on the 50m high one, the feed point impedance was 63.3-31.1j for the 10m high case, the impedance was closer to 78+6j - due to the loading effect of the soil under the antenna.

the power was 6.36E-3 watt for the 50m case. - so maybe multiply the voltages by 400 (=sqrt(1000/3.36E-3)) to scale to 1 kW.


There are some oddities here..

The voltage along the dipole is about the same for 10m and 50m, but the voltage along for the low dipole is a LOT higher - I'm not sure why yet.

And the voltage from "ground" to the dipole is highest for the 50m case, and lowest for the 10m case.

I'm thinking it's because 10m is 1/4 wavelength

The odd results for the low dipole are perhaps because of the "transmission line" effects

When I get some time, I'll look at the theory and see if I can make sense of this.



##  I would have thought  rain water  was distilled  water,  high resistance... 
but have never  tested  rain water.
Have tested  store bought distilled water..and   then compared distilled water 
to  tap water....  huge difference.

##  I suspect  dacron rope, when wet, is not much better than nylon rope.

Jim   VE7RF

_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk


_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>