You look like you have room out where you live save money on aluminum and try a Bobtail Curtain, you can make it out of 14 ga wire and it is a vertical and they are supposed to perform like a hooker on main street. You can have it up and made in about 60 minutes.
-
You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
Modified Vector 4000
- Thread starter bob85
- Start date
You look like you have room out where you live save money on aluminum and try a Bobtail Curtain, you can make it out of 14 ga wire and it is a vertical and they are supposed to perform like a hooker on main street. You can have it up and made in about 60 minutes.
Homer, I have a 1/2 square, which is similar to the BobTail, but IMO these don't work too well due to their best performance being noted with the vertical elements being only .3% of a wavelength above Earth...which puts the top 1/2 wave element at or less than about 20' feet high when working in 11 meters. If you are in the very wide open (little around you) with relatively flat terrain, then you may be OK however.
When I raised mine up very much higher than the height specified, I think the pattern lost its advantage over a dipole at a similar height. I think it also began radiating more like a horizontal wire instead of being vertical, as it is intended. The match is great, but IMO you need at least 50' feet of horizontal space to hang this one in order to help prevent the feed line from ill-affecting the pattern...even if you set it low to Earth.
I see these types of antennas likely working best at much lower frequencies.
It isn't really ugly and you will barely see it if you use non insulated wire.
For those not sure what it is , It's two or more vertical 1/4 wave sections between a 1/2 wave top. Basicaly a cheap phased array.
Fed at the corner of 1/2 and 1/4 wave sections is a low-impedence current feed point, or if fed at the bottom of one of the 1/4 wave sections against a counterpoise it is a high-impedence voltage fed. Nothing you could not whip up with some insulators and some wire and rope.
Best part is it can be mounted very low and have good performance for dx. Doesnt cost but a hour of your time and who knows it may work.
Last edited:
That's good info from both of you.
I have some very small wire I could do this with. Is it fed against an earth ground? Or is one of the end 1/4 waves the counterpoise? That's how it appears to me.
I have some very small wire I could do this with. Is it fed against an earth ground? Or is one of the end 1/4 waves the counterpoise? That's how it appears to me.
No ground, it is fed like a dipole. I think mine has the center conductor feeding into the 1/4 wave and the shield into the 1/2 wave top element.
B
BOOTY MONSTER
Guest
Yes, I know it will, but I've not bothered with building a half wave before other than some form of dipole or sleeved omni. Just to say I've done it.
Last edited:
I hadn't thought of it. I will take a look at it.
So. It's fed like a Zepp? Center to long part and shield, or second conductor to short leg.
Easy enough.
Just a note, center to 1/4 wave section, shield to the 1/2wave. the ends of the 1/4 wave can be a few feet off the ground. I used some small bungees connected to a egg insulator at the end of 1/4 waves to hold them in place with a tent stake in to the ground this way the wind didnt blow them all over. I would try the 3 and if you have room add another 1/2 wave and another 1/4wave. total length there about 48'.
Homer, as you know we don't have much wind here typically, so I used twenty ounce soda bottles filled with water to hold my vertical lines down straight. They will drift around easily in any wind if not secured a little, and the match will be affected.
Such antennas are noted to be DX sensitive when setup correctly, and to attenuated local traffic and local vertical signals in particular. When I had mine installed a few years ago, there was no DX at the time and I was not able to copy local signals very well. I also think the poorer the soil conditions are in your area, the better this antenna may work.
Such antennas are noted to be DX sensitive when setup correctly, and to attenuated local traffic and local vertical signals in particular. When I had mine installed a few years ago, there was no DX at the time and I was not able to copy local signals very well. I also think the poorer the soil conditions are in your area, the better this antenna may work.
- No one is chatting at the moment.
