Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

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

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Do I need an insulator on the ends of my
From: "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2020 11:49:35 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:30:42 -0700
From: Dan Maguire <danac6la@gmail.com>
To: towertalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Do I need an insulator on the ends of my
dipole?

Jim, VE7RF, wrote:
>>> 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.

<A few years ago I did a little EZNEC study on that.  Details here (Reply #16) 
<https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/touching-the-antenna-during-transmission.556342/page-2#post-4157410

<Dan, AC6LA

##  Interesting.  40  volts  rms  at the center of the dipole, and  400  volts 
rms,  just  10% out from the center...  and a whopping 1161 volts rms at the 
extreme tips....and add 41%  for peak  V.  

##  I did try  an experiment back in 1977,  with a 204BA  sitting on wooden 
sawhorses in  back yard.   We stuffed a  600 w  cxr into it.... and  could 
light up a 
four foot  fluorescent light tube to more than full brilliance !   The tube was 
held a few inches away..and parallel to the tips of the DE.  That was a dead  
tube too, ready for the trash.
Neighbour  was amused... no wires  connected to the tube, yet it looked like a 
500 watt  bulb..and at 12 noon on a sunny, summer day. 
Funny thing is, when birds, like starlings, sat on the tips of the els, on any 
of my  20-15-10 m yagis....and with 1.9 kw cxr  stuffed into the yagi, the  
birds  dont budge...go figure.  

##  In  1981, while trying to adjust the hb  gamma match on a hb 10m 
yagi...with wife in shack at front of house running the t4xc, I got a real bad 
RF burn..and
I had leather gloves on !    That was the last time I had the wife  operating 
radio gear, while I was tweaking gamma matches.  Next up, was tweaking the hb 
gamma match
on a hb 20m yagi....at  top of a  76 ft tower.  Then I got some better  help.

##  I supplemented the  .3125  dacron rope, used for guying both the 40m eles 
and also the 80m rotary dipole..with small glazed  egg insulators... in 
compression mode.
This is where the dacron meets the ele.   I was not about to trust the dacron 
rope, when wet.  I was not about to trust those egg insulators in voltage 
standoff mode  either,
so went with compression mode.   Dacron used on both sides of the egg 
insulators.

Jim  VE7RF

_______________________________________________



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

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>