Shockwave,
Fed in the 'center'? Just depends on where/what/how you consider the thing as being fed. Where do you think it starts? That Sirio antenna is NOT center fed, it's end fed using an impedance matching device. That might put the 'feed point' approximately in the physical 'center' of the thing, but that certainly does not mean it's center fed.
I will agree with Doc`s point here, I do not think it is center feed, and I do not think Sirio claims that is is a center feed antenna.....
The new design of radiant element (Patent Pending) behaves as a centre-fed dipole, hence all RF currents are in phase.
The quote says "Behaves as a center feed antenna" Not that it " is " a center feed antenna.
It does not require ground plane radials because it is a balanced antenna that function as a centre-fed dipole.
Again, from Sirio, " A balanced Antenna that function`s as a center feed Dipole"
As shown in Fig.3 the RF signal started from the generator run through the coaxial cable of the choke coil, then continue along the first part of the whip until it meet the coaxial stub that works as impedance matching, and then continue up to the termination of the coaxial line (antenna phase centre).
Note the Antenna Phase center statement.
I think it is indeed a end feed antenna that has been designed to "act" like a center feed antenna, with a slight gain ( 0.6 db ) due to creating a balanced antenna where the RF currents on both half`s of the antenna are "in Phase " and the advantage of pulling the angle of radiation down to horizon.
This is just how I look at it, I do realize that the coax termination is "At the Phase center" but over all, the antenna ( at least to me) should be considered a end feed.
This Part is simply a war of words so to speak, and bases on were one look`s at the "starting point" of the antenna.
The advantage of the 5/8 antenna over other design`s is due to the fact that it has a lower angle of radiation , And the Gain Master look`s to take advantage of this even further as well.
Now , the 64 million dollar question.....
In real world testing, will it live up to it`s
"1-2dB, corresponding to 26%-58% more gain" claim as is posted from there testing in the modeling.
The Built in Choke is a good design to de couple it from the Mast, and the posted bandwidth looks great, the biggest downfall i see in the data is the 500 watt power handling limit....
I can not wait to see some hard real world data from user`s.
73
Jeff