TopBand: Comments on EWE antennas

Bill Hider n3rr@erols.com
Mon, 16 Sep 1996 03:30:12 -0700


I received quite a few replys with questions on EWEs, so here are my 
answers/comments re:EWEs.

Thje EWE antenna name is a cute way of saying "U" (upside down).  The 
EWE, of course, was the logo used in Floyd's (WA2WVL) article in Feb 1995 
QST.

The design I am using on all five of my EWEs is the dual band design in 
Floyd's article.  A close look at the several designs he presents will 
show that the patterns/gains, etc of this design are superior (in my 
opinion) than those mentioned for single band.  The design I use is: 15 
ft verticals connected by a 38 ft horizontal wire.  The verticals are 
connected to a load resistor of 830 OHMs (10 OHMs smaller than that 
suggested in the article 'cuz that's what Radio Shack had!) at the 
receiving end and to a K2ZJ (ZJ Electronics) Beverage Box at the driven 
end.  All antennas are fed with RG-58 cable.  Both verticals use 4 ft 
copper ground rods with liberal application of Jet-Lube copper lubricant.

The two phased EWEs are separate EWEs, 130 ft apart (in the same plane, 
so that an areial view of them would depict a rectangle with the corners 
at the locations of the four verticals.  They are fed with equal lengths 
of RG-58, using a non-amplified K2ZJ Beverage Box and connected together 
at the common point and impedance-matched with a 2:1 Minicircuits 
transformer (model T2-2).  The single feedline to the shack is RG-58 as 
well.  Total feed line length from shack to Minicircuits xformer = approx 
100 ft.  Length of equal-length feedlines to each EWE is 175 ft.  I used 
the unamplified box in this application because I suspected that the 10dB 
gain in the ZJ box, if used, would swamp the T2-2 xformer.  I have 
noticed that the 10 dB gain in the box is really not necessary anyway.

I have used a Slinky Beverage made from 8 slinkys (total length = 50 ft). 
The EWE always outperforms the slinky.

I mount 3.5 of my EWEs on the wooden fence line in my back yard.  One of 
the EWEs is suspended by two trees, 1/2 of another is in the trees.  The 
trees do not seem to affect performence.

BTW, the K2ZJ boxes attach directly to a 5/8 inch ground rod making them 
very convenient.  Check out the ZJ Electronics homepage, available from 
the PVRC home page and elsewhere.

Glad to answer more Qs if any.

73!

Bill, N3RR@EROLS.COM

--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Sponsored by Akorn Access, Inc & KM9P