OK, I just remember seeing something about the DMROG a few posts back, and I was to lazy to go read through all the threads....
73
Jeff
73
Jeff
Not really... the height of the puck won't allow for a proper high power coil's overall size if it's going to be fed at the bottom of the vertical.
The coil ends up being fed into the shaft several inches above the feed point. I would also think the coils proximity to the body metal would impact especially at high power levels.
I don't think it was an accident that Dave ran a capacitor in the ROG along with the grounded coil.
because the coil thingy is too big/tall when designed to accomodate high power. the coil will terminate several inches higher than the feed point.
This is where the theoretical hits the practical road. For everyone who's following along - myself included, it might be easier if you included an actual design of your concept as opposed to just the theoretical "it can work" stuff. I'd like to see how a copper tube coil taps into a 1.5" tall puck and feeds into the bottom of the antenna and still accomodates the power handling requirements of the application. I'm a visual kind of guy - I'm sure I'll understand it better when I can see it.
The drawing is not to scale, but should give a general idea of one type of impedance matching device commonly used on mobile antennas.
The bottom shaft of the antenna goes down through that coil and connects to the mount 'clamping' that 'shaped plate' between it and the mount. The shaped plate just has to be of a size not to short to ground at that connecting point. The matching coil I used on a bugcatcher antenna used a copper plate soldered to the bottom winding of that coil. It worked just fine for a lot of years. Took a while to find the right tap point on the coil for that ground wire, but it's certainly 'doable'.
Power handling? The coil was made with #12 wire spaced about 1/8 inch between windings. It handled 500 watts just fine but that means that the antenna definitely had to be resonant! Depending on the amount of power you plan to use, it would be a fairly safe bet to use large sized wire and spacing. If the spacing ever get's to something like 1/2 inch, it's way over done. If the power was in the 1000 - 1500 watt range, I'd say #10 wire and 3/16 inch spacing ought'a do just fine. (That's a guess at the spacing, and probably a bit 'large'.)
- 'Doc
Hey ROC1, have you ever used a matching coil on the inside of the vehicle? How did it work? Did it perform successfully? What were the disadvantages? Anyone else for that matter can chime in...............Pro's? Con's?