102" Dipole Opinions

[The Jerk]

OK...I'm going to be moving soon, and the new place will allow any antenna as long as its less than 35 feet above the roof line or a max of 75 feet free standing. I'm not going anything near this height, probably just build a tip-up that "leans" against the house out of telescoped schedule 40 steel pipe...maybe three 21-foot sections, probably less than 50 feet (and the house is 2-story).

I currently have a home-built 102" dipole mounted horizontally about 15 feet up...since I don't want to run this thing up/down all the time, should I mount it vertically to do more localized talking? Opinions?

 

[W5LZ]

Another possibility instead of changing that dipole is to just put up a verticly oriented antenna. Switch between the two. There's no real distinction between a 'local' and 'DX' antenna, a vertical will do both. Some times a horizontal antenna may do better at 'DX' than a vertical, but it's not a guarantee. They are a bit less than desirable for local stuff because of the difference in polarization than most local stations (the biggy).
If you have the option of a tower and all that, and if it doesn't 'bite' the wallet too hard, I'd certainly do that!
If it works, then it works.
- 'Doc

 

[Marconi]

OK...I'm going to be moving soon, and the new place will allow any antenna as long as its less than 35 feet above the roof line or a max of 75 feet free standing. I'm not going anything near this height, probably just build a tip-up that "leans" against the house out of telescoped schedule 40 steel pipe...maybe three 21-foot sections, probably less than 50 feet (and the house is 2-story).

I currently have a home-built 102" dipole mounted horizontally about 15 feet up...since I don't want to run this thing up/down all the time, should I mount it vertically to do more localized talking? Opinions?

Hey Jerk, I don't understand exactly what you mean by a 102" dipole, unless you mean you are using two 102" whips mounted base to base. If that is what you are doing horizontally and you want to improve your vertical response, you could figure out a way to slant the whips down in a 40 degree angle to the ground and keep the convince of the horizontal while improving the vertical responses, making the dipole into an inverted V.

Your idea to go vertical may be a good one if your local traffic is all vertical and you not seeing a good response. The problem with a vertical center fed dipole is how to exit the coax at 90 degrees to the radiator, so the feed line does not cause problems with the pattern.

In my opinion however, 15 feet up is not much height, so maybe that is the biggest factor you have with low performance locally. Your antenna suffers from clutter on the ground that is higher than the antenna and that will severely affect any signal you see. So, your idea for 35'-50' of height is a good idea except that 3 sections of schedule 40 conduit is very heavy and will not be easy to work with and needs very good support.

 

[The Jerk]

Thanks!

I am talking about a dipole constructed from 102-inch whips...and it would be fairly easy to make into an inverted "V", its a "droopy" dipole now. I have a "choke" of about 10 coils of RG8 at the feed point to the dipole. I think the main reason I don't get (too many local) contacts is stemming from the fact its lower than surrounding homes and I'm running legal power through almost 100 feet of RG8. I do have about a 1.5:1 SWR, best I can measure it. Just for the record, I have made solid DX contacts with nothing more than a RatShack handheld during installation testing!

As far as the "tower", I know it would be heavy and if I make it a tip-over, and use a hand winch to lower/raise it; it shouldn't be that bad. I plan on making a saddle off the house for it to rest against when stood up.

Another option would be to add two more antennas, use three as radials and one as a vertical. Once I'm in the new place, it should be easy for me to fabricate things.