[TowerTalk] Off Center Fed Antennas

[Jim Brown]

On 6/4/2013 2:28 PM, Larry Loen wrote:
> As long as we're talking OCF antennas, I've always found this an
> interesting source as far as explaining them:
>
> http://www.w8ji.com/windom_off_center_fed.htm

Yes.  It should be noted that W8JI lives in the middle of nowhere, miles 
from neighbors. I'm out in the country, but my nearest neighbors are 
about 500 ft away, and I hear their noise.

If noise and/or RFI are not issues for you, including your ham gear, a 
Windom might be a reasonable option.  That's not the real world that 
most of us inhabit.  The average home today has dozens of switching 
power supplies and more than a dozen pieces of equipment with 
microprocessors.  All of this stuff is a potential source of RF noise. 
If you doubt this, run your ham rig on a battery, kill power to your own 
home, and notice what noise goes away.  If you're lucky, your own noise 
won't be overpowered by what's coming from your neighbors.

The whole point of this is that if you can't hear them, you can't work 
them.  In the past two hours, I worked two new band-counties who were 
only about S3. If my noise level was any higher I wouldn't have heard them.

No one is saying that any given antenna "won't work," we're simply 
pointing out that some are better than others, and that every antenna 
has its advantages and limitations. Almost all wire antennas cost about 
the same to build (a couple of end insulators, a feed point insulator, 
some wire, some rope, and maybe one or two pulleys), so it makes sense 
to put up the best one(s) that you can based on your real estate and 
availability of sky hooks.

73, Jim K9YC