What's the Difference

[shoemaker]

80 mtr rotatable dipole and an inverted v dipole at the same height? I know one has the advantage of rotating, but I am speaking about performance.

 

[jonbah]

The 80 meter rotatable dipole has to be shortened by loading coils which will be less efficient than a full sized dipole. Being rotatable will help get you out of the nulls or dead spots that a flat dipole has but a inverted v has a fairly good omni pattern as long as its up high enough and the ends are not dropped to sharply. I wouldn't think a rotatable dipole for 80 meters would not be worth the time and investment. 20 thru 6 meters would be better with a full 1/2 wave length element.



Jonbah

 

[W5LZ]

shoemaker,
The quick-n-dirty answer is that there isn't all that much difference, other than changing the direction of the 'nulls' (directions of less signal). If the height is close to 1/2 to 1 wave length above ground, I'd love to have the rotatable dipole. Otherwise, two wire dipoles oriented 90 degrees to each other would do about the same thing, almost. I can afford a lot more wire than tower/rotor/etc....
- 'Doc

(The bad part of that is that I don't have the room.)

PS - 'Shoemaker' = Cobbler = 'COB'. Except people might think it really means "Crochity Old B _ _ _ _ _ d"... oh well, forget it.