A year with a dipole
We bought our house last February but the antenna didn’t go up until April, due in part to shortages in ladder line from the Wireman. April 8th, in fact – a year ago today.
The configuration is:
5/100-watt rig -> 3′ of RG-58 -> Z100 LDG autotuner -> 15′ of RG-58 out the window -> 4:1 LDG balun -> 75′ of ladder line -> 80m dipole
The antenna is about 65′ high, strung north-south between two pine trees and used 10-80 meters.
I’ve been a fan of this type of multiband dipole ever since a storm took down a G5RV many years ago in Connecticut. The difference in performance between a ladder line-fed dipole and a G5RV is amazing. I’m not sure what advantage a G5RV claims to offer…
Here’s a summary of the dipole’s performance for one year:
This fall I plan to wire in a relay just past the balun that will allow me to short the two wires of the ladder line together and feed the dipole as a vertical T against the ground for use on 160 meters. That will make for a single antenna that will be DX-capable on 9 bands. Besides the relay, all I’ll have to do is make an effective RF ground.
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Themocracy
Hi John,
Still enjoying your site even with the move. I like the new format.
I’ve been using a doublet similar to yours for the past couple years. Mine however uses no balun as such- I have a homebrew Z-match in the shack which is an essentially fully balanced link coupled “tuner” which is manual and thus a bit slower, but is said to be somewhat less lossy than a balun. (How much difference that makes in the “real world” may be debatable) I run window line all the way to the dual link z-match. My 66′doublet runs fine down into 75m, though one I helped a buddy with is a single link (Phil AD5X’s version)which ironically tunes much lower than mine using a shorter doublet and still works FB up through 6m. Think I need to rewind my unit’s toroid to be identical to his! For some the hassle of any manual tuner may not worth it, so I cannot knock your approach at all- obviously it works, and is no doubt much quicker to QSY. Either way, a dipole doublet can indeed be a very useful antenna capable of getting the job done quite economically. Indeed I challenge anyone to come up with any antenna which offers more bang for the buck!
Hey Stuart,
You’re right about an auto-tuner not being ideal since it is more lossy than others that are available. A few years ago, QST compared the losses of several popular manual tuners. Ten Tec’s L-match tuner was the best by far & I promised myself I’d buy one. But at that time, my main interest was chasing new band-countries which involved a lot of QSYing as the DX cluster showed entities I needed. I literally wore out my manual tuner at the time (although it was an MFJ). But having to tweak 3 knobs every time I changed bands made me a believer in auto-tuners, even with their losses.
It’s a shame that many hams simply dismiss dipoles and other wire variations as being ineffective DX antennas. Far from it, even running 50 to 100 watts output.
In this year’s ARRL DX contest, I was a bit taken aback to find that my dipole was actually broadcasting a stronger signal into Europe than my 43 foot vertical on 40 and 80 meters. I was able to verify this after the fact by using the Reverse Beacon Network. It was very surprising. But it was evident at the time by the speed that I got through. I know this won’t be the case all the time, a lot of factors come into play, but it just goes to show that a dipole can be a tremendously effective antenna.
In stateside contests, I routinely switch exclusively to the dipole, even for long-haul to Hawaii and Alaska.
No, it won’t beat a yagi at 50 feet on 10-20, but not everyone is using a directional beam. Once those guys work the DX, there’s a good chance that you’ll eventually get through. Give me a skilled operator, 100 watts, and a dipole over a LID with a beam and even an amp anytime.
73, Ed
Ed, the truth of your last sentence ought to be Chapter 1 of any how-to on DXing.
And now you’ve got me Googling the Reverse Beacon Network…