[UK-CONTEST] Inverted vee etc.....

[Peter Hobbs]

Ivan,

I know how you feel.  You just couldn't contain yourself.  Coax is fine for
verticals and most beams, where you have an earthy point for the braid, but
feeding a dipole with it is usually asking for trouble, with or without a
balun, which are sure-fire consumers of RF.

My set-up here for the last 10 years is exactly as you have recommended, the
only difference being that until recently I used home-made open line (always
getting tangled) and replaced it recently with your slotted ribbon.  But let
me go one step further (or is it backwards, I get confused these days...?).
Ivan, you and some others may remember the Z-match, which was all the rage
in our earlier youth.

This is an absolutely wonderful all-band (except WARC) ATU designed to feed
balanced line at any impedance.  It doesn't need a balun, the output coils
are balanced.  You can also (as I do) feed the antenna off centre, as it
drives current into the wire at whatever quirky impedance it finds and
provides a 1:1 match to your expensive and usually fussy PA.

No you can't (as far as I'm aware) buy these and I seem to have mislaid my
copy of the ARRL handbook (1956 ed.) which carried the original article, but
I'm sure Pat 'VA has published the design at some point in the last 50
years.  All the bits can, I believe, still be found at Nevada and its a
cinch to build over a quiet weekend.

Seriously, anyone with an odd length of wire they're keen to fire up on all
bands in time for 8/9 March, I can count the turns on mine and email the
details.

Cheers

Peter G3LET

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ivan Davies" <g3izd at davies.net1.co.uk>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 11:16 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Inverted vee etc.....


Lots of sound advice of course. For my part, after removing the balun I
would remove the coax. peel off the outer sheath,pull out the braid and bury
it as a good ground/earth.I would then connect 300 ohm slotted ribbon and
feed it from an ATU via a balun. Purists would rightly go "yeeuk" at the
balun bit but its almost impossible to get an ATU without one.This antenna
would then work on all , or certainly most, bands.
        Cheers Ivan G3IZD
_______________________________________________
UK-Contest mailing list
UK-Contest at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest