[TowerTalk] Choke on feed point of dipole

[Jim Brown]

On 1/12/2026 3:48 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> the well established principle that elevating a vertical doesn't work 
> very well in the first place, no matter what is done to feed it.

In a study of the height of vertically polarized antennas that I 
published in parallel to the one on horizontally polarized antennas, I 
showed that there CAN be benefit to modestly elevating quarter-wave HF 
vertical antennas. The study looked at typical roof heights for single 
family homes. The The benefits are on the order of a few dB -- reduced 
ground losses and lowering the angle of maximum field strength.

Making the antenna a half-wave improves the vertical pattern by raising 
the height of the current maxima, just as elevating quarter-wave 
vertical does. And the end-feed arrangement used for half-wave wires 
would likely work just as well (although we might not like the vertical 
pattern when operating on harmonics).

There's another reason my feed arrangement could be useful -- rigging 
from a single support, like tossing a rope over a tree limb. I like to 
show methods that give folks more options, depending on their real estate.

73, Jim K9YC