hf antenna effectiveness and orientation again

[nfsus]

well its fall. finally. ive been running an ocfd with a 4:1 current balun for a couple years. good matching. easy install. running north to south in a more or less inverted vee. 45ft at the feed point. its all fine and dandy. but ive been wondering a few things. and yeah its the same old thing everyone always asks but the answer is always "whatever works for you". kinda like going to the dr.

im not against building a new antenna. was thinking about a fan dipole. also looked into maybe a end fed long wire. the height is pretty much all i can do at this time. but i can change the orientation if i wanted to. but whats your take on a good multiband general antenna?

 

[HarryUSA]

I would imagine your transformer is actually an UnUn, if you're feeding an off-center-fed antenna. So you've said you can get to 45 feet in height, but what are your dimensions of the area you can have the antenna occupy?

 

[WQ2H]

There are a LOT of options for sure !

The best (multi band) HF antenna I've had is a basic inverted V, cut to λ/2 (λ = lowest frequency of interest) with a 600 ohm feedline cut to λ/4. The feedline (if you do not have a balanced-line tuner) is brought into the shack to a 1:1 current balun close to the tuner. You will need lightning protection (spark gaps / polyphasers) at the service entrance. You're "lowest frequency of interest" will of course depend on your available real-estate. My experience is that true inverted V's are pretty much "uni-directional" (see EZNEC simulations below). Interesting article by L. B. Cebik, W4RNL (SK) here.

Whatever you decide - good luck !