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Incognito antenna
- Thread starter 85Blazer
- Start date
I can tell you from experience of just setting up a Workman Saturn B-100. Its short, it will function similar to a mobile antenna at best. It does work as described. Had to use odd 1/2 wave multiples to get it to work correctly. All reviews say work best with over 50 feet of coax. The coax does radiate of course the antenna uses the coax as the counterpoise. Mine setup uses 66 feet of coax. I am just using a barefoot Cobra 29 LX with that setup.
The longer the coax the lower the reflected power will be because it's all wasted heating up the feedline. Ideally, about a mile of coax will give low reflected power on all bands.
Never tried it out on SSB. What Beetle is saying is right- the longer you make the coax the lower SWR. I read the reviews- figured calculated out 5- 1/2 wavelengths taking the velocity factor of the RG8X into consideration it came out close to 66 feet in picking a number over 50. I got an SWR curve that I expected. The longer the coax the flatter the SWR curve gets and I assumed it was to the point of a non efficient antenna. And a close to flat SWR curve at 15 feet in the air with a little antenna made no sense. I do not have an antenna analyzer. so I went for the old calculations to take the coax into consideration in tuning. It worked for me. The functions like a mobile. It has the SWR curve of 2 on 40, 20 on 1, 1.4 on 20. It made sense. Maybe someone else can get it to work better. Hope this helps.
Yep some smart radio guys are on here. I'm curious to see what solutions you try.
This wouldn't work in your circumstance but I knew a guy that had an Antron up in a tall tree I believe he had a wire running down to the ground. I laughed when I saw it but it talked good it was high up
This wouldn't work in your circumstance but I knew a guy that had an Antron up in a tall tree I believe he had a wire running down to the ground. I laughed when I saw it but it talked good it was high up
Secret Squirrel - the SWR doesn't get lower; the reflected power does because the forward power has been used up heating the cable. Several "SWR meters" are really responding to reflected power and have scales that read in approximations of SWR. Not the same thing.
If the forward power is reduced due to coax loss, wouldn't the reflected power loose the same percentage and keep the same ratio. Attenuation is a two way street. That's how I see it at the moment
Here are some options - I've tried the first three with good results.
Radiowavz double bazooka dipole
Sirio D-27 Dipole
Sirio 27A Balcony antenna - this actually works surprisingly well
Radiowavz hex beam - I'm debating trying one of these
Don't do the saturn 100 or whatever they are calling it. A radiowavz dipole will blow it out of the water even if mounted closer to the ground.
Radiowavz double bazooka dipole
Sirio D-27 Dipole
Sirio 27A Balcony antenna - this actually works surprisingly well
Radiowavz hex beam - I'm debating trying one of these
Don't do the saturn 100 or whatever they are calling it. A radiowavz dipole will blow it out of the water even if mounted closer to the ground.
That's pretty close to it. What I'm saying is that with an actual SWR meter, you can vary your output power without seeing a corresponding change in the (Voltage) Standing Wave Ratio. There are too many "Switch to FWD; key transmitter and adjust the knob for full scale; unkey transmitter; switch to REF; key transmitter and observe SWR" "instruments" out there that give newer folks a false sense of something or other.
Getting closer on having those first three, ha! “Stealth” (and ease of impermanent install) rank highest for me (and to son).
The Big Iron is a someday “if” at this time.
Received the R-wavz 11-M Double Bazooka when I arrived home. And a second for son. Info packet nice and antenna construction appears quality.
None of the three antennas are expensive. That’d be real hurtin’ for trying temp antennas in difficult city locations. Maybe the three add up to the price of a minor league “real” antenna.
Already have some home-brew wire dipoles, so there’s a range of what we can try.
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Use a plastic wall mount flag pole holder, put a metal flag pole in it. Hang a thin wire down from the holder. Attach a coax discretely to the pole and the wire. Dipole. I've done it for fun. It works.
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