[TowerTalk] Inverted Vees

[Rob Atkinson]

Inverted Vs are compromise antennas in most cases compared to flat top
dipoles.  The ARRL hyped the inverted V in handbooks claiming its
advantage with a 50 ohm Z (as if 75 ohms would make an antenna
unusable if fed with 50 ohm line) and a supposedly omnidirectional
pattern.   But most inverted V users hang the feed point off a tower
or tree that isn't all that high so if there's any omnidirectional
pattern it doesn't matter because it's a cloud burner.   The effective
height of an inverted V is the average between the apex height and the
height of the ends.  So a 60 foot high apex with the ends on the
ground is pretty much like having a flat top at 30 feet.  All is not
lost.  If you can hoist an inverted V up high on say, a 100 foot
tower, it won't work all that badly.   If you can't achieve that but
you CAN put up a flat top dipole at 50 feet let's say, do that.  It
will work better than a 60 foot high inverted V because you'll avoid
the near ground loss that goes with the ends just a few feet above the
ground.   My remarks pertain to 80 meter half wave dipoles since
that's where most hams use inverted Vs.

73
Rob
K5UJ