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Homemade Dipole Antenna Help...

T23

Active Member
Apr 17, 2010
645
12
28
I built a simple dipole antenna for 11 meters and basically I am just questioning whether its working like its suppose to, I tested it with a guy across the street and I live far off from the road it was about a quarter mile or so and he could hear me fine, he has problems with his radio and can not transmit back, my SWR is 1.5 - 1.6 across all 40, one thing that bugs me though is that my TX power indicator is only giving my a 3 out of 5 is this normal? Skip was in yesterday and today aswell and I could hear them, but apparently no one could hear me which made me suspicious of the antenna.

Basically the antenna is a inverted V dipole and each wire is 110 inches long, I folded back the tips of each wire to tune the antenna for the best SWR.

One wire is hanging flat alongside the sophic of the house and the other is vertical to the ground.


T23
 

Forget any built-in meter that reads out in terms of "3 out of 5". Get yourself a good external meter that actually reads power.

Then get the antenna up off the roof and the "sophic" (?) and mount it in the clear. It has no gain relative to a dipole (it IS a dipole!), but it will have negative gain if any part of it is in contact with the roof or any other object.

Dipoles are good all-around antennas, and I've worked DX with moderate power (100 watts or less) with many dipoles. It's not the best DX antenna, but it's about the easiest to build and install.
 
Do not forget to wrap an RF choke at the feed point to eliminate the coax from being part of your dipole.

Here is a link to explain how that dipole should work.

Dipole Antenna Radiation Patterns by WB4YJT

Here is alink that explains how to build one, and even has pictures.

DIPOLE AND INVERTED V VEE DESIGN AND CALCULATOR

Dipoles work, they do need to be in the clear, away from metal objects and "soffit's" on the roof.

Now you want a wire antenna with some gain? Good long distance dx but poor local rag chew? Try this one. I am using it on 11 meters and it screams out long distance, but sucks for local.

http://www.zk2v.com/n4gg1.pdf

Do not forget the choke balun

BUILD AN AIR WOUND 1:1 CHOKE BALUN FOR HF - THE UGLY BALUN!

You will not need that many wraps of coax as you are playing with 27 mhz, somewhere there is a chart for how many wraps to use for each frequency, Safe to bet around 6 wraps maybe 8 wraps should do it for 27 mhz.

Have fun playing with that dipole
 
What you are seeing is about average for how you have that 'dipole' positioned. Maybe not the best it could be, but certainly not bad, all things considered.
If you could hang the thing so that the leg pointed straight down was straight up, I think you'd see some improvement. If you could also make it look like the hands of a clock when it shows "4:00", you'd also see a little improvement. You would probably have to adjust the lengths of each leg a just bit shorter, but that's normal too.
Raising the whole thing higher off the ground would also help.
The way you hav the ends of that antenna folded back onto it's self (making a loop on the end?) is about as 'normal' or typical a way of doing it as you can get, it's probably how most people do it. Doing it that way allows you to make length adjustments easily, and/or moving the thing up/down the band which is sure convenient at times. Making things shorter by cutting it off is easy, but the opposite, adding some to it to make it longer isn't. Right?
Lot's of little 'tricks' with antennas, some more useful than others.
- 'Doc
 
string it up horizontally as high as possible and away from all objects. Ideally one wavelength high of 36 feet or as high as you can get it to that height. I use two trees and mine is about 26 feet and i have very good dx. I'm not barefoot though, but you should still be able to get some dx when mother nature is in your favor, keep trying you'll get your name called out. best of luck.
 
Thanks for the tips y'all, I'll have to try those suggestions, and yeah I am more interested in DX than anything. I need to find another SSB radio, right now I am using a TRC-434, not much to it really...:laugh:

Too bad it wasn't a 458...

T23
 
Now you are getting in the ballpark for 11 meter rigs, TRC 457,458 or the Cobra 139XLR, all the same chassis, after mods are done correctly and a good alignment performed one of the, if not the best performers.

Kick butt on SSB , amplifier helps but have made so many contacts with just the radio, good antenna and favorable propogation
 
I remember back in 1987 maybe 1988 working a station in E. Germany with a SuperStar 360 a Pride P-100 amp @110w and a 1/4 wave dipole hung 6" below the ceiling in my 2nd story apartment. Fred my buddy across town couldn't work him with 200w and a Excalibur radio on a A99.
Hope your dipole works good for ya.
 
I remember back in 1987 maybe 1988 working a station in E. Germany with a SuperStar 360 a Pride P-100 amp @110w and a 1/4 wave dipole hung 6" below the ceiling in my 2nd story apartment. Fred my buddy across town couldn't work him with 200w and a Excalibur radio on a A99.
Hope your dipole works good for ya.

I think you mean a 1/2 wave dipole. There is no such thing as a 1/4 wave dipole.
 
I tried building a 1/4 wave dipole, receive gain was horrible and it would not tune...

But sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes ya don't.... :LOL:

Isn't it time to let this old thread rest in peace?


T23
 

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