Vertical homebrew
- Thread starter w3nrl
- Start date
Spiderman
Member
If local environment will permit this, convert the vertical to a center-fed vertical dipole.
YES, "Center-Fed"!
Feed this with 450 Ohm (or even 300 Ohm) open wire.
Run the feedline perpendicular or close to that away from the antenna for at least 20'. 30' is better.
Match in the shack with a symmetrical matchbox.
If you use an asymmetrical matchbox, which most matchboxes are, I prefer to use an external balun, to prevent burning the internal balun up (not to mention the losses in most of these).
Make the balun out of 23 ft. of RG-213 (for high power), wrapped around about a 1 ft. length of 4" PVC pipe.
Make the balun out of 23 ft. of RG-259 (for up to a couple hundred watts), wrapped around about an 18" piece of 3" pvc pipe.
Advantages:
- No radials needed
- Low ground losses (significantly better than a multiband end-fed vertical with just a few radials per band)
- 40 through 10 meters work great for the size, time, money and effort of this project
- 80m will load as well and you will have a fair signal here (better than most 80m mobile stations)
The late L.B. Cebik, W4RNL wrote an excellent article on this type of antenna and really praised it. See: "A Vertical Doublet for 10-30 Meters" (www.cebik.com)
I've been using it for 17 years in one form or another and it is a great general purpose, low profile antenna.
73,
Rick, NJ0IP
"Spiderman"
YES, "Center-Fed"!
Feed this with 450 Ohm (or even 300 Ohm) open wire.
Run the feedline perpendicular or close to that away from the antenna for at least 20'. 30' is better.
Match in the shack with a symmetrical matchbox.
If you use an asymmetrical matchbox, which most matchboxes are, I prefer to use an external balun, to prevent burning the internal balun up (not to mention the losses in most of these).
Make the balun out of 23 ft. of RG-213 (for high power), wrapped around about a 1 ft. length of 4" PVC pipe.
Make the balun out of 23 ft. of RG-259 (for up to a couple hundred watts), wrapped around about an 18" piece of 3" pvc pipe.
Advantages:
- No radials needed
- Low ground losses (significantly better than a multiband end-fed vertical with just a few radials per band)
- 40 through 10 meters work great for the size, time, money and effort of this project
- 80m will load as well and you will have a fair signal here (better than most 80m mobile stations)
The late L.B. Cebik, W4RNL wrote an excellent article on this type of antenna and really praised it. See: "A Vertical Doublet for 10-30 Meters" (www.cebik.com)
I've been using it for 17 years in one form or another and it is a great general purpose, low profile antenna.
73,
Rick, NJ0IP
"Spiderman"