1/2 wave Inverted V Dipole Antenna

[Newbie solar guy]

My current Inverted V is off the balcony of a condo and actually works quite well, in fact better than I expected. The open side faces a little North of East and allows me to work Europe, South America, Central America easily when 10 meters (and 11) is open. It's not the ideal situation but beats no antenna at all. Works well for local also, seems to be fairly omnidirectional. It's performance was improved quite a bit when I moved it a foot off of the balcony structure.
View attachment 60431

73

That's exactly like my inverted V. I tried and couldn't get a good SWR reading under three. Pretend that the floor of your balcony is the ground and the top of your neighbor's balcony bottom is the peak of my house plus 4 ft..... but same exact setup nothing behind it ,not hanging right on fascia boards ,out free, but not the required 9ft. Per side of free space....well that's what I read on the internet ,anyhoo, mine didn't work. I was Pissed. Nothing..... I made a Sloper out of the center fed dipole.Sad to admit, wifes idea, her CB.....sloped using nothing but paracord... wire starts around 28" from peak (14ft agl) , to 28" above ground 8.3in per leg.plus few inches for center feed PCV thing I made. lol...THAT WORKED. Swr 1.2 -1.4 heard skip from NC,Florida, Georgia, it's was crazy. Talked to our local tribe that we only get in the car 10 miles Closer to town.ya, pretty cool stuff,we are new..... old but new.

 

[Wire Weasel]

I did turn my inverted V into a sloper and picked up and talked to the big boys locally and heard all kinds of skip today that we never heard before . It was very cool.you're right I'm not going to get out very far but I'm going to throw one of them little Italian amps on it and hopefully get at least 10 to 12 miles out. I live in hoa community that sucks. So I need to be stealthy. It's coming of the back peak of my house sloping towards town. It worked. Wife's happy. How do I check dead key and swing watts? I have workman 3p cheap meter with dual swr and watt. But when I talk into mic, watt meter stays at 4.5 watts...even when I scream into it.lol any thoughts. Thanks for sharing

Hmmm .... I don't think you ever said what your Radio is. Almost all of the cheaper little amps are going to want to see a lower Dead Key than that. Like down to 2 or 2.5 watts. So you're going to have to go inside the radio and turn that down - unless your radio has a Variable Power knob on the front. Could be to do with the cheap meter also. You'll appreciate having better equipment down the road. What is your radio? .... and consider paying some more and get a better quality meter.

 

[Newbie solar guy]

I did turn my inverted V into a sloper and picked up and talked to the big boys locally and heard all kinds of skip today that we never heard before . It was very cool.you're right I'm not going to get out very far but I'm going to throw one of them little Italian amps on it and hopefully get at least 10 to 12 miles out. I live in hoa community that sucks. So I need to be stealthy. It's coming of the back peak of my house sloping towards town. It worked. Wife's happy. How do I check dead key and swing watts? I have workman 3p cheap meter with dual swr and watt. But when I talk into mic, watt meter stays at 4.5 watts...even when I scream into it.lol any thoughts. Thanks for sharing

Hmmm .... I don't think you ever said what your Radio is. Almost all of the cheaper little amps are going to want to see a lower Dead Key than that. Like down to 2 or 2.5 watts. So you're going to have to go inside the radio and turn that down - unless your radio has a Variable Power knob on the front. Could be to do with the cheap meter also. You'll appreciate having better equipment down the road. What is your radio? .... and consider paying some more and get a better quality meter.

No I understand completely ,when I do use my amp, I'm only going to be putting 1.5 to 2 watts. through it . but for now that's what I'm getting is the four and a half Watts thru the Meter,that's all I was stating. I have Andy2 by president and a little will 305 antenna on my car and I do 5to seven miles easy in my town and up on the hill I'm getting 15 miles out of the thing barely audible but I can still have a conversation it's incredible I found the hidden menu that Andy two had and boosted the wattage up as far as I could and the modulation I boosted that up as well and everybody says it sounds really good but now I'm using it as a base station for my house I just take it out of my car and hook it up to my solar system and then just switch the unit back and forth from my dipole it's a fiasco my wife laughs, but then again it's her CB I'm the mule

Hmmm .... I don't think you ever said what your Radio is. Almost all of the cheaper little amps are going to want to see a lower Dead Key than that. Like down to 2 or 2.5 watts. So you're going to have to go inside the radio and turn that down - unless your radio has a Variable Power knob on the front. Could be to do with the cheap meter also. You'll appreciate having better equipment down the road. What is your radio? .... and consider paying some more and get a better quality meter.

Hmmm .... I don't think you ever said what your Radio is. Almost all of the cheaper little amps are going to want to see a lower Dead Key than that. Like down to 2 or 2.5 watts. So you're going to have to go inside the radio and turn that down - unless your radio has a Variable Power knob on the front. Could be to do with the cheap meter also. You'll appreciate having better equipment down the road. What is your radio? .... and consider paying some more and get a better quality meter.

I'm planning on doing 1.5 to 2 watts thru the kl 203p amp. When I use it. I have an Andy2 lil wil305-38 antenna. I use the same radio with my sloped dipole antenna I built and It works great. Going to use amp on dipole rig in backyard. She calls it our outdoor base station lol

 

[Eldorado828]

Goofing around with what I have and came up with this last night.

Now when there's a nice day will take it out and see how it tunes.

 

[Alan Blackmon]

Goofing around with what I have and came up with this last night. View attachment 61215View attachment 61216

Now when there's a nice day will take it out and see how it tunes.

Looks really good. I'd be very interested in how it tuned for you.

 

[Eldorado828]

Looks really good. I'd be very interested in how it tuned for you.

You know earlier today I actually thought about that unfinished project, still haven't taken it out for tuning. I was all gung-ho until realizing that it really needed a balun then moved on to other things. Will report back when it's a done deal.

 

[Alabama Buckeye]

I've two very similarly constructed "I-Vee heads", home grown, with variations on how legs are attached. Can't say why but without a current balun the SWR is greater than desireable. The ohms variations is "suppose" to be negligible. I use 12AWG bare copper leg wire. The copper might have an enamel coating, I didn't taste test it but it does appear to have a oxidation coloration.
A pair cheap shite iron 140 donuts (1/5 $ of an F140) and 16AWG magnet wire in parallel the current balun returns a 1:1 SWR across the 11m band. I used a pair, separated by 1/8" ABS disk, to up the wattage. I have transmitted 1000W without smoking them
I've found AGL height does make a difference.

 

[Riverman]

Goofing around with what I have and came up with this last night. View attachment 61215View attachment 61216

Now when there's a nice day will take it out and see how it tunes.

That looks great, Ed.
I’ve run numerous dipoles with no balun as have millions of other operators.
The simplest was a 10' extension cord with the ends cut off and split down the middle. One half was connected to the coax braid and the other to the center conductor by simply twisting and wrapping with a little electrical tape. Trimmed the lengths for SWR and it worked great. Yeah, without a balun the coax will radiate some, but I doubt you'll see any difference in actual performance other than the antenna might be a little more omni-directional than one with a balun.

You should get that good-looking antenna up in the air. Just not today. I see it's 19 degrees where you're at.

 

[binrat]

That looks great, Ed.
I’ve run numerous dipoles with no balun as have millions of other operators.
The simplest was a 10' extension cord with the ends cut off and split down the middle. One half was connected to the coax braid and the other to the center conductor by simply twisting and wrapping with a little electrical tape. Trimmed the lengths for SWR and it worked great. Yeah, without a balun the coax will radiate some, but I doubt you'll see any difference in actual performance other than the antenna might be a little more omni-directional than one with a balun.

You should get that good-looking antenna up in the air. Just not today. I see it's 19 degrees where you're at.

What is this balun you speak of?? Joking. I am portable HF up to 45 watts but mostly 12 watts. All my dipoles, no balun but I spend a lot of time testing and tuning on various terrain (mostly Mountain top). Baluns are great for less than idea setups in my books.

 

[Beetle]

I've used a great many dipoles and inverted vees since being licensed in 1959. I've never built one that required a balun (regardless of what The Book says), and I've never been disappointed in how these antennas perform, whether for local yakking or DXing.

Of course, this was back when transmitters all had to be tuned up, driver and final tubes, and SWR measuring wasn't absolutely necessary. When I did get to borrow such an instrument for the first time, I found that my SWR was right around 5:1. I noted that in my log and kept working everybody who called. I was in Nevada (read: "rare state") so there was rarely a time when I ran out of calling stations.

 

[Marc@Radio59]

I have rubber insolated 8in eye bolts coming. I'm in a hoa. That's the problem here.lol. as long as I can keep swr and heat low, I think we will be good.ill boost up from 10 to 15 watts. Maybe even go to 20w if my neighbors radios doesn't go nuts...lol they are like minded , good old boys! They will help me TEST how much I can go before I'm coming over their TV sets , radios , Netflix, a blender .hahahah

 

[Marc@Radio59]

I have rubber insolated 8in eye bolts coming. I'm in a hoa. That's the problem here.lol. as long as I can keep swr and heat low, I think we will be good.ill boost up from 10 to 15 watts. Maybe even go to 20w if my neighbors radios doesn't go nuts...lol they are like minded , good old boys! They will help me TEST how much I can go before I'm coming over their TV sets , radios , Netflix, a blender .hahahah

Hello, I live in an HOA and I have my inverted V on my upper deck, I used a dual ferrite 5kw 1:1 balun from Balun Design. I went over on the balun. One wire is at the top of my divider that separates my townhouse from the neighbors, the other wire is near my the ground of my patio. I run about 150 watts no more and have talked skip all the time and overseas. I hope you were able to get everything working