Curious how good of an antenna I had?
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| Aug 18th 2023, 16:53 | |
KF6HHHTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Tried to find out what I had made and nobody has ever said anything. I had a 100’ 3-wire electrical extension cord that went bad. I stripped out the wire and used it for antenna wire. I purchased a BALUN which had two posts on it. I attached one 100’ section to one post, another to the other post. I laid the wire on the roof of my house in roughly a “U” shape. It worked quite well on HF, at least for my purposes. Again, the wire was just laying on the tile roof and no insulators were used other than the standard insulation on the wire. So I figured I had a dipole antenna of 200’? Just curious if anybody has any thoughts on this and what I could have done to make it better? XYL hates antennas, and we’ve moved, so I’m stuck for now, but hope to figure out something that is similar that I can try in the future. |
| Sep 21st, 00:46 | |
danazlinTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Repeat after me: "Any antenna is better than no antenna" "All antennas are a compromise" That said, are you able to get a match on your 100' dipole? A decent SWR? What kind of balun are you using (1:1, 4:1, 9:1 or something else)? Are you using a choke? What bands can you tune it to? Are you using a tuner? 100' is close to the 3rd multiple of 14.2Mhz (99' actually). You are longer than a half wave on 40M, so you might get something there. For a resonant dipole you won't get good results on 10.1Mhz or 18Mhz, as those are even multiples. It might work on 10M as it is twice the 3rd multiple. On the other hand, 84' or 107' is a reasonable length for an end fed non-resonant long wire antenna for HF and might be a better option. If you can get it a few inches away from the roof that would help, but isn't critical. KE6PO |
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