What if I...

[Sarasota Slim]

I tend to take note of what antennas other truck drivers are using (and I see some interesting setups); I don't recall having seen bent antennas, though. Well, not intentionally bent, anyway. I have seen some that looked like they were attacked by rabid bears.

For a while, back in the 90's, it was popular for folks to bend their AM/FM antennas into zigzags, for some personal flair. Every now and then, I do wonder if that would hurt anything, if that were done with a CB antenna, if practicality demands a somewhat shorter antenna.

 

[StrangeBrew]

For a while I used to see cabs with mag mounts stuck to the side of the fender and the whips bent to stand straight up, don't know how that worked out for them though.

 

[Sarasota Slim]

Maybe, when I get around to buying an antenna analyzer, I'll start bending up some antennas, and recording the results. It would be interesting to see what happens. If it doesn't hurt things too badly, that could be useful knowledge. If it turns out to be very destructive, that, too, would be useful knowledge.

 

[The DB]

...hey, don't be afraid to bend the top 10"-20" of a Wilson trucker 2000/5000 back at a 90° angle, most of the energy is from the coil - up, so that has worked well for several drivers I know.

This type of antenna is well known and well studied, amateurs used to use these all the time and some still do. You won't notice a difference from this when it comes to performance as long as you keep the bend near the tip, however, make your bend before you tune the antenna as the bend will add to the needed length of the antenna (total of the vertical and horizontal parts) will need to be a little bit longer.

For a while, back in the 90's, it was popular for folks to bend their AM/FM antennas into zigzags, for some personal flair. Every now and then, I do wonder if that would hurt anything, if that were done with a CB antenna, if practicality demands a somewhat shorter antenna.

This will yield a very different result from above. With more bends in the antenna you will need to make it even longer when tuning. Also, a significantly higher portion of the radiated signal will no longer be vertically polarized, which can make a difference, the question is how much of a difference. Can such a design be made to work? Yes, and i have no doubt on that front, the real question is will it keep enough signal in-tact that it will perform well, and that is where I have my doubts. I would say using a shorter vertical antenna that meets your height limits would be more effective than this design for several reasons.

Have fun experimenting.


The DB

 

[StrangeBrew]

Want to see some amazing design work google "stargun antenna".

 

[Needle Bender]

Reminds me of my "MOON SCANNER" design where I integrated 3 full wave quad loops at a 120° parallel diagonal dihedral to focus RF energy into the center collector fed dipole which end fires the concentrated RF photons toward multiphase resonance points along the polar axis of the moons atmosphere causing reflections of re-radiated negatrons back to earth of the nightmares those who've read this will be having.