A Dipole for your CB Base Station?

[222DBFL]

I used a fishing pole and some weights on the line. I use braided line (power pro) on my fishing reel. Thin and strong. Tossed line over tree branches and pulled the dipole ends up and tied off at bottom of trees. Worked out well and was pretty easy.

 

[222DBFL]

No stretching of the wire. The limbs don't blow around much in that area to be honest.
I still plan on putting the vector 4000 back up Marconi. Just haven't had the time. Been too busy with work and wore out on the weekends!! The dipole was easy to put up, that is the only reason I did it. Also it is pretty directional. I hear most N/S with it. I can hear locals in all directions, but not very far.
It definitely isn't like the vector 4000, but it's an antenna that allows me to at least get on the air. Like I said, luckily where it's at the wind doesn't mess with it much at all. And it works well enough for now, until I get the time to get my vector 4000 back up. Thanks for the comments and hopefully I'll hear some DX now LOL!! Been pretty quiet here. But I haven't been on the radio that much to honestly say if there has been much DX.

 

[dan martin]

Used a dipole for years, made from a wind damaged antenna 1/4 up, 1/4 down,no balun, work scotland from toronto. Worked great locally too. Running one now that I bought ndto tell you the truth, I'm not impressed with the"manufacturing", lugs fell off the wires, just make your own.

 

[222DBFL]

Making your own is the best way. About the only thing I will buy is a Dr. Dipole 1:1 balun. Add my own wire. But they work well and are built well too. But home brewing one is fun and helps you learn a few things in the process if you take the time to test things like inverted V versus horizontal, an L shape, and so forth. Many things can be accomplished and some knowledge as well!!

 

[222DBFL]

And they can work on other bands as well even if just for receiving.

 

[tba02]

Though not the best, maybe, I am fond of an MFJ-918 current balun, a couple of appropriately sized split bolts and a big spool of 14 gauge THHN wire.

 

[Riverman]

Have always been confused about this.
If a horizontal half-wave dipole is in the neighborhood of 75 ohms and is being fed with 50 ohm coax, why is a 1:1 balun usually suggested? Wouldn't a 1.5:1 (75 to 50) be better?

 

[Robb]

Have always been confused about this.
If a horizontal half-wave dipole is in the neighborhood of 75 ohms and is being fed with 50 ohm coax, why is a 1:1 balun usually suggested? Wouldn't a 1.5:1 (75 to 50) be better?

The balun is used to keep the common-mode current (CMC) off of the coax.

 

[The DB]

You can make a 1.5 to 1 balun, they do exist. That being said the 1.5 to 1 SWR this type of antenna generally has isn't bad enough to require anything to correct it so I wouldn't bother.

This little SWR is nothing, and well within the safe range of most equipment.


The DB

 

[Riverman]

You can make a 1.5 to 1 balun, they do exist. That being said the 1.5 to 1 SWR this type of antenna generally has isn't bad enough to require anything to correct it so I wouldn't bother.

This little SWR is nothing, and well within the safe range of most equipment.


The DB

Thank you, DB. Was hoping you'd chime in. You confirmed what I suspected---using a 1.5:1 balun in lieu of a 1:1 will not work wonders.

Robb, thanks for the reply. I know baluns reduce CMC but was wondering if a 1.5:1 would do a better job than a 1:1. As DB has pointed out, the difference isn't significant.

 

[Needle Bender]

That's why I'm picky about the length of coax, I've rarely used a balun and almost never had an RFI issue, even at 3500w pep.

At 1.5:1 swr you're only losing about 5% and that usually less than the losses from using either a balun or a tuner.

 

[Bandrunner]

When I dropped my 50ft mast recently to put a tilt-over joint in it and mount a reconditioned A-99 on top, I took the opportunity to add an inverted-V 11m dipole on two of the guy ropes. It works well, but I think I should have wound an RF choke on the feedline at the top. No matter, the mast is easy to drop again, which was the whole point of the modification.
It's noisier than the A-99 at the moment. In fact, the quietness of the A-99 took me by surprise a little. I isolated that from the steel mast by slotting it into a PVC sleeve which is clamped onto the mast. The idea of isolating it came from this forum, so thanks to whoever it was that recommended that.
As was mentioned above, the inverted-V is better at DX than local, but it does get out to the locality, just not as well as the A-99. Operators further afield seem to hear the V well enough, but it's early days yet. It may get better.
As was also mentioned above, it's quite a good reception aerial, turning in excellent performance on the Medium Wave (AM) band, and seems to not have a particularly bad patch of non-resonance all the way up the HF spectrum, which surprises me.

Of the three guy ropes, one is vacant - that points towards the Caribbean, and it might be worthwhile running a single long-ish wire along that to form a sloper. It will cost nothing to do that, so that appeals.

 

[w9cll]

As was mentioned above, the inverted-V is better at DX than local, but it does get out to the locality, just not as well as the A-99.

This is because the V is horizontal and the A99 is vertically polarized.

 

[Bandrunner]

On balance, it's working quite well, though. I'm happy enough with it, for a $ outlay of next to nothing

 

[glenn]

Dipoles do not have to be horizontal.

Due to many CB users having mobiles, makes end fed base antennas common.

The first dipole antenna I made was a copper pipe one. It was vertical.

Old link i see but i outgunned many a 5/8thwave vertical and most every 1/2 wave vertical esp the a99 type.i even hung in eith small beams with my fictor dipole up 36 feet horizontal between 2 trees.i put big signals into europe and most of the world with a old kenwood 450sat 100 watts back in 2013 thru 2015.388 va. On the long short wire.