[TenTec] Antenna names

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Wade, the problem is, even the name "Windom" is being misused.  I'm guilty
of that too.
To me, "Windom" sounds like a nice, sexy name for an antenna, whereas "OCFD"
sounds like a mental illness.

The proper name for a piece of wire fed anywhere off center is Off Center
Fed Dipole (OCFD).
However feeding it off center by just one inch is still really a dipole.
I bet 90% of the dipoles of this world are off by an inch!

The original Windom was fed with a single wire, off center of course, and
needed a ground network (radials) to operate efficiently.  In that respect
it was kind of like a T-antenna; but not really.  

Feeding it with openwire, with an insulator between the two horizontal wire
segments makes it more ground independent. It no longer needs radials to
work well.

A 'T-antenna' should have the top wires equal in length.
This reduces the radiation from them and more power is radiated from the
vertical segment of the wire, which is what we want for working DX.

If we feed off center, especially as far off center as the original Windom
was fed, it causes the horizontal segments to radiate a larger part of the
signal.  So this is not really a T-Antenna.  It's a Windom.

However, just as everyone seems to call 'antenna-matchboxes'
"antenna-tuners", (except Jim and I), everyone also seems to call OCFD
antennas Windoms.  I finally gave in and began using the same names because
it was too much trouble explaining the difference all the time.

I personally like calling a dipole that is not a half wavelength a
"doublet".  
That gives us a way of distinguishing between a resonant antenna (dipole)
and a non-resonant antenna (doublet).
But there is no wide-spread acceptance for this.
Sure would make life easier, though.

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Wade Staggs
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 4:09 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Antenna names

*Running 126 feet of wire... 63 feet in each direction... Center fed with
450 ohm Window Line. It is most assuredly Not a G5RV. But my friends keep
wanting to call it a G5RV. We can work 80 thru 6 meters with a good manual
tuner. Is it the best antenna in the World? Of course not...... But at this
Rental Property with some restrictions, we can talk and hear about the same
as others using Fan Dipoles and Dedicated to the Single Band Dipoles.
Everything in life is a compromise. Can I unbalance the antenna and offset
the Window Line an inch from the dead center and call it a Windom? This
would clear up everyone's insistence that my antenna is a G5RV..... Just
Joking Folks....*

*
73 from Wade/KJ4WS*

On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 2:41 PM, Ken Brown <ken.d.brown at hawaiiantel.net>
wrote:

> The Zepp was a one sided antenna, with a quarter wavelength openwire 
> feedline to a halfwave wire. ....
>
> Hams are funny about naming antennas. For example, a Zepp antenna may 
> have been clearly defined as above, but then people make modifications 
> that diverge so much from the original meaning of the name it makes no 
> sense to keep using that name. Make it into a dipole, and call it a
"Double Zepp."
> There is no way a Double Zepp could ever be used the way a "real Zepp" 
> was used on a Zeppelin....
>
> Or make the horizontal wire longer, and call it an "Extended Zepp." 
> But then it is not the length it needs to be a normal Zepp. So why 
> keep calling it a Zepp?
>
> Then there is the G5RV antenna. The "inventor" G5RV said there is no 
> such thing. He built a dipole and experimented with various lengths of 
> ladder line and coax, to try to find a combination that worked good on 
> multiple bands. He said it was just a dipole, but the ham community 
> called it a G5RV. Now there are hams who claim that a specific length 
> dipole, with specific lengths of ladder line and coax feeding it are 
> "genuine G5RV antennas" and the anything else is not. Other hams think 
> that any dipole fed with ladder line is a G5RV.
>
> DE N6KB
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