|
My antenna came in a plastic bag with instructions.
The Off Center Fed antenna was complete, no construction needed. The wire was neatly coiled with all Stainless
Steel hardware attached. The end insulators were heavy duty with the wire wraped well. The 5 kw 4:1 Granulla
Balun was enclosed in a Nema weather proof enclosure with stainless steel hardware and a SO-239 connector at the base.
Setup
My wife uncoiled the wire slowly and laid the antenna out on the ground. Take care to unroll the
wire. Do not put a kink in the wire. I connected my feedline with a PL-259 to the base connector and taped with
3M plastic tape. I connected one end to a rope on my 30 ft tower and the other end to a 16 ft post on my deck.
The weight of the Balun pulled the antenna down and the height was about 10 ft off the ground. The distance from
the tower to the post is about 200 + ft away. If it were closer it would have been better. The overall length
of the antenna is about 145 ft. The RG-8X feed line into the shack is about 100 ft.
Operating Conditions
My station is located on Niles Hill at 2265 ft ASL. The ground slopes away in all directions but to the West.
The first test was a SWR sweep using an MFJ-259B antenna analyzer.
80 Meters
3.5 mhz 1.3:1 at 55 ohms
3.55 mhz 1.2:1 at 55 ohms
3.65 mhz 1.2:1 at 50 ohms
3.75 mhz 1.1:1 at 50 ohms
3.85 mhz 1.2:1 at 40 ohms
3.95 mhz 1.7:1 at 30 ohms
40 meters
7.0 mhz 1.2:1 at 50 ohms
7.1 mhz 1.1:1 at 55 ohms
7.2 mhz
1.3:1 at 60 ohms
7.3 mhz 1.4:1 at 50 ohms
20 meters
14.0 mhz 1.2:1 at 65 ohms
14.2 mhz 1.2:1 at
50 ohms
14.3 mhz 1.2:1 at 48 ohms
10 meters
28.0 mhz 1.7:1 at 32 ohms
28.3 mhz 1.4:1 at 58
ohms
28.5 mhz 1:1 at 50 ohms
29.0 mhz 1.5 :1 at 65 ohms
30 mhz 1.7:1 at 50 ohms
6 meters
50.0
1.3:1 at 60 ohms
50.5 1.3:1 at 55 ohms
51 mhz 1.5:1 at 67 ohms
54 mhz 1.5:1 at 48 ohms
2 meters
144 mhz 1.1:1 at 48 ohms
145 mhz 1.1:1 at 52 ohms
146 mhz 1:1 at 50 ohms
148 mhz 1.1 at 50 ohms
WARC Bands
30 meters
3:1 accross the bamd
17 meters
18.1 mhz 1.5:1 at 60 ohms
18.2
mhz 1.55:1 at 56 ohms
12 Meters
24.9 mhz 1.3:1 at 62 ohms
25 mhz 1.2:1 at 59 ohms
60 meters
about 3:1 across the band
This testing was done on a cold and windy day, The ground was moist from the frost.
This summer with help, I will do an A/B test comparison with a dipole for each band.
On-Air test
This antenna is
10 ft above ground, it will be a near vertical incedence antenna. A cloud warmer. All RF energy going straight
up. Daily I work into the WPA Phone and traffic net with success. I am always heard. Test on 20 meter
Cw and Phone. I have broken pileups on Phone and CW. One contact into Somalia I had to work about 10 calls under
poor conditions. May 9th 2010 I worked OH2BAD, Miika first call almost S9 into him. My radios are TS 480 Kenwood
100 watts out and a Ten Tec Orion I with 100 watts.
|
