THE BEST WIRE ANTENNA

[K8PG]

Hello,
I would opt out on the G5RV it was designed for 20mtr cw,If made for other bands its nothing but a cloud Warmer-it may work ok..The Loop antenna is a good all around
antenna,feed it at 1 end and have it as high as you can get it,Ive had a loop for 160
close in propgation 100-1000 miles works good,it was 1 3/4 waves fed with homebrew
600 ohm ladder line-it had a killer signal on 80,40 and 30 mtrs-Make all your antennas
Resonant to your operating freq. you frequent most.I like Invees and Dipoles too-especially longwire types fed in the center ,end or at 1/4 wave in.from the end a lot of
these antennas require a lot of fiddling with-The antenna is the Heart of any radio system-if your antenna does not play well-your signal in nothing,I have 5- I vees,2
dipoles ,3 verticals and 2 yagis right now,Iam a stickler with the SWR also if not under 1.3 to 1 Ive got to fix it.Good luck and have fun.73/44s/DX
Paul K8PG

 

[RickC.]

6 years ago I put up a Unadilla trap dipole after trying to figure out every way possible to fit an antenna for 75/40 in 115' without having the ends dangling, etc., and I was limited to coax feed because of how I had to get the feedline out of the house. It has one single pair of traps for 40, and was acceptable with a tuner on 20 but I wanted to use my amp so I eventually added PVC spacers and put a 20 meter dipole under it, fan dipole style. I had considered buying 20 meter traps but cutting up 1/2" PVC and adding a hank of wire was a lot cheaper-- figured I'd try that first, and it's worked so well I have never changed it.

I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but it's been a great antenna. I've used it quite a bit in that time on traffic nets, Century Club nets, DX and ragchews on 20 and 40, and 75m AM. The only drawback is not having the low ends of 80 and 40 when it's set up for 75 and 40 phone, but it would not be out of range of an autotuner.

It's up 50 feet on one end, sloping to 28 feet on the other, and I often have gotten "big signal" comments checking in on the nets-- and have worked several European phone stations barefoot on the antenna when my amp was down for maintenance, that was an unexpected plus.

So that's a totally anecdotal and unscientific recommendation for you. Don't get hung up on the "lossy trap" thing, I have had good results with this antenna, and the W2AU balun has not given me a bit of trouble. Had 70 mph winds here last night, it shrugged it off just as it has for 6 years.

Good luck on your search.


Rick

 

[CDX-007]

I've seen numerous full wave loops get trounced by a neighbor's Inverted Vee or center-fed dipole, mostly NVIS, within 1000 miles.

Are you wanting NVIS to work well perhaps up to 1,000 miles, or a world-wide lower TOA DX performer?

One friend had a Carolina Windom in his back yard, erected only 20' from the ground so the coaxial choke was actually laying on the ground, and he smoked everyone else in his area, and loved it on 20m / 40m / 60m / 80m.
Had to use an outboard Dentron 3000 coupler though.

I've run an antenna I call a HAngLO and found it incredible for NVIS. A 120' loop (20' high, 40' long) which I loosely patterned after a 6m M² HALO EXCEPT it hangs vertically with the 8" bottom-center break near the ground (2-7' above ground works wonderfully) and is top-center fed with balanced line to a coupler.

A broadcast engineer friend of mine used one in Las Vegas with great success on 20m-80m. Installed it 4' from the radio & amp, just outside the wall and only 20" (inches) from the ground.
- Kept up neck-n-neck with a local neighbor on his 70' apex 130' inverted Vee and at only ½ the wattage of the guy with the Inv Vee! - I was 450miles from them at the time.

Performs best:
80m) - NVIS
40m) Off the ends
20m) Broadside

Don't want to tune? Then listen to the guys extolling the virtues of the Maypole.

At 120° an inverted vee will be 50ohms but semi-directional off the broadsides. - At a 90° vee it will work as an omni, equal in all directions & polarities, almost like a isotropic radiator, but at ~37ohms.

73

 

[W5LZ]

All ot that 'directivity' with dipoles (any antenna, really) deals with their height above ground in terms of wave length. At less than about a 1/2 wave length above ground a dipole just isn't all that directional at all. It's starting to be, but is far from being directional to any extent. They do start to get sort of 'bi-directional' between 1/2 and a full wave length. Those 'nulls' off the ends are never as sharp or deep as people think. For all practical purposes, a dipole around 1/4 wave above ground is omnidirectional. Just remember that's all dependent on frequency and wave lengths. For an 80 meter dipole, less than 60 feet typically means a sort of football shaped radiation pattern. Between 60 and 120 feet, it does tend toward deeper nulls, but even so, don't expect 'beam' type patterning. That's a very generalized thing, and assumes the antenna is away from almost everything. Start adding to that antenna's environment, houses, trees, whatever, and that 'classic' pattern starts getting very 'lumpy', sort of, not really 'classic'.
- 'Doc

 

[GI0ZGB]

Best Wire Antenna

For best wire antenna, one example: dipole1

Even the best antenna can be seriously degraded by your location, hight above ground, nearby or distant obstructions etc, so no matter how good the antenna, unless the mounting conditions are perfect, you are never going to see the manufacturers test range performance at your QTH!
A cheap home brew wire antenna can easily match the RF performance of a professionally made, superior quality antenna. Food for thought.

 

[CDX-007]

Well, considering he wants to go as high as 20m, and his only spec was "Rag chew", I would presume he will need an antenna quick to change bands, and able to propagate at all angles & directions, especially on 20m where a lot of mobiles work the band.

I will have to 2nd the Maypole advice, especially when erected in the 90° instead of 120° layout so it has plenty of vertical components as well as horizontal.

Being a 90° vee (~37ohms) the SWR should be <1.5:1 so I doubt any of his equipment will complain.

There's a good choke on the market which will allow his 20m element to also be very effective on 10m.