[TowerTalk] OWA Inventor?

[Ian White]

Steve NN4X wrote:

>I have wondered from time to time about this assertion: "... the
>inventor of the OWA...WA3FET."
>
>It is my understanding the Tom, N6BT developed the what is now known as
>"OWA" design with his Force12 line of antennas.
>
>I've had quite a number of Force12 antennas at my station, and was one
>of the first owners of their 6L 20M and 6L 15M models. Somewhere along
>the line, I also purchased a Force12 8L 10M Yagi. They all have the "D1
>very close to DE" characteristic of the "OWA" design.
>

The idea of inserting an extra director very close to the Driven Element
has been independently discovered several times. 

One of the first to specifically recognise that this extra director can
help create feedpoint impedance close to 50 ohms over a relatively wide
bandwidth was Guenter Hoch, DL6WU, who used it in the well-known series
of VHF/UHF long Yagi designs that he developed in the mid to late 1970s.


I believe that WA3FET later rediscovered the same feature in the
different context of shorter Yagis for HF, and that he (and/or his
associates) were responsible for coining the term "OWA".

However, that certainly doesn't rule out anyone else having discovered
the same principle quite independently of either DL6WU or WA3FET. 


73 from Ian GM3SEK