Stacked Rigid Dipoles

[Riverman]

Hello, All.
Am giving thought to making two rigid dipoles (6 & 10 meter) from fiberglass driveway markers and wire. They will be horizontal and mounted one above the other on the same pole with 4 ft separating them.
Here's my question:

Will each be least affected by the other if they are (a) Perpendicular or (b) Parallel?

Thanks.

 

[The DB]

Perpendicular.


The DB

 

[Riverman]

Perpendicular.


The DB

That was my guess but wanted to be sure.
Thank you, DB.

 

[Riverman]

Perpendicular.The DB

Found this on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Meter-an...557889?hash=item21122864c1:g:meoAAOSwc1FXcXU-

One coax connection. One balun. And "Parasitic Coupling" (whatever that is). How does the 6 meter portion function?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Found this on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Meter-an...557889?hash=item21122864c1:g:meoAAOSwc1FXcXU-

One coax connection. One balun. And "Parasitic Coupling" (whatever that is). How does the 6 meter portion function?

I don't like the way the balun is connected to the element. Copper in direct contact with aluminum is not good. I would solder lugs on the wire and use stainless bolts or sheet metal screws into the element. As for how the 6m element works, it is a form of what is called para-sleeve excitation. It is not directly connected to the driven 11m element yet it is "shock excited" by the 6m RF. I have a triband HF antenna that uses what is called a para-sleeve driven element. The only element actually connected to the feedline is the main 15m and 20m element. There are shorter elements on either side of the main driven element for 10m similar to what the builder has done for that 10/6m antenna. It is a Hygain Explorer-14.

http://www.google.com/patents/US4604628

 

[Riverman]

http://www.google.com/patents/US4604628

The link was fascinating. How well does your tri-bander work?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I'll let you know when I get it up later this summer. Actually it seems to tune fairly decently on the ground as far as I can tell. I do know a couple stations that use them and they have high praise for it. The bandwidth seems to be very good. The Hygain Explorer-14 gets pretty good reviews for a simple tribander and due to it's design (less traps) it has less losses on 10m.

 

[Riverman]

I'll let you know when I get it up later this summer. Actually it seems to tune fairly decently on the ground as far as I can tell. I do know a couple stations that use them and they have high praise for it. The bandwidth seems to be very good. The Hygain Explorer-14 gets pretty good reviews for a simply tribander and due to it's design (less traps) it has less losses on 10m.

Yep. GREAT reviews on eHam. Wish I lived somewhere I could put something like that up. Maybe someday.
Thanks for responding.

 

[The DB]

And "Parasitic Coupling" (whatever that is).

In a yagi antenna the non-driven elements are examples of parasitic elements. How a parasitic element works is the signal is radiated by a driven element, then essentially received and retransmitted by the parasitic element. In a yagi it is how they achieve forward gain, however, some antenna designs use parasitic elements to gain access to other bands, and in some cases widen the antennas bandwidth.

I'm not personally a fan of the method myself as far as multibanding is concerned, I prefer the fan type dipole over using a parasitic element to gain access to other bands. Still it should work fine for you if you choose to get it.


The DB

 

[Riverman]

Is this something that can be homebrewed? It would save the cost of the second coax cable and balun I was going to use in my original plan of stacking two dipoles.