Sorry, this was my thread and I didn’t get any email notifications like I usually do so I thought nobody replied lol.
I did put up my “normal V” dipole last weekend. It went on a 36 foot mast, underneath an old Shakespeare. (My main antenna is on a separate tower 60 feet up). I didn’t get much of a chance to test it throughout, it was really unstable for my mast and the way I had it set up, and was overly complicated to try and adjust the swr. I wanted to start with the upright V,,,,, because I had it backwards mentally and thought the feed point would be higher. (That’s actually why I started this thread).
I took it down and set it up as inverted. For some reason I really had trouble getting the swr down to an acceptable level I. This position. I thought it would have been easier than my horizontal experiment. 2.0 was a struggle. But after some testing, I finally realized that this thing isn’t going to nearly match the performance of my Maco V-58 that’s 60 feet up (duh). But it’s the building of these that’s been fun.
I finally rebuilt as a horizontal. After many times taking it up and down, I settled with a 1.6 SWR on both 1 and 40. It’s my understanding that there is a impedance mismatch with the 50 ohm cable in the horizontal position, and this is probably the best I can get. (I do want to run power through it).
This horizontal dipole fit the bill. I haven’t spent a whole bunch of time on it because of my job, but yesterday evening Skip was rolling and I literally talked everywhere on lower sideband. I hit places in Canada, Florida and the Carolinas. (I’m in Southern Illinois). Yes I understand when skip is rolling you can talk on a wet noodle just about, but it was still satisfying knowing that I was talking on something that I built my hand and spend very little money on.
Simple electrical conduit, 1/2 inch slid into 3/4 with slits and hose clamps, the center inside an electrical plastic box. 4 wraps of coax around a 4 inch pipe then zip tied, and complimented by a ferrite bead for good measure lol.
I did put up my “normal V” dipole last weekend. It went on a 36 foot mast, underneath an old Shakespeare. (My main antenna is on a separate tower 60 feet up). I didn’t get much of a chance to test it throughout, it was really unstable for my mast and the way I had it set up, and was overly complicated to try and adjust the swr. I wanted to start with the upright V,,,,, because I had it backwards mentally and thought the feed point would be higher. (That’s actually why I started this thread).
I took it down and set it up as inverted. For some reason I really had trouble getting the swr down to an acceptable level I. This position. I thought it would have been easier than my horizontal experiment. 2.0 was a struggle. But after some testing, I finally realized that this thing isn’t going to nearly match the performance of my Maco V-58 that’s 60 feet up (duh). But it’s the building of these that’s been fun.
I finally rebuilt as a horizontal. After many times taking it up and down, I settled with a 1.6 SWR on both 1 and 40. It’s my understanding that there is a impedance mismatch with the 50 ohm cable in the horizontal position, and this is probably the best I can get. (I do want to run power through it).
This horizontal dipole fit the bill. I haven’t spent a whole bunch of time on it because of my job, but yesterday evening Skip was rolling and I literally talked everywhere on lower sideband. I hit places in Canada, Florida and the Carolinas. (I’m in Southern Illinois). Yes I understand when skip is rolling you can talk on a wet noodle just about, but it was still satisfying knowing that I was talking on something that I built my hand and spend very little money on.
Simple electrical conduit, 1/2 inch slid into 3/4 with slits and hose clamps, the center inside an electrical plastic box. 4 wraps of coax around a 4 inch pipe then zip tied, and complimented by a ferrite bead for good measure lol.
