Fascinating, simple, efficient antenna. A perfect antenna for those living on small urban lots. I've used such an arrangement on 20 meters with great success....I always enjoy your laid back approach. Aloha de Russ (KH6JRM).
Hi Walt, here a smal mesage from the Netherlands,the halve wave dipool for 10 is working fine here on a fisching rod in front of mij home in a street its almost a stealth antenna and when i am ready lower it down no problems with neighbours and windy conditions .. keep up the dood work Walt 73 PA#DTQ
EFHW all day every day. I run a vertical version for 20-6 based off a 17ft whip that checks all the boxes. And of course the classic 40 efhw is just so versatile.
This is amazing! I put a horizontal dipole in my attic peak here in Pennsylvania and was skeptical of it as a new technician. With a 60-watt Anytone portable radio my first contact was in Scotland! The strange thing is I can barely receive and talk to a radio club 50 miles away. Frustrating. I am going to try this vertical one. Many thanks! KC3USL
Is the club running vertical? Some experiments have shown up to 25db loss I'd your unlucky enough to be exactly 90 degrees out of polarization. That would easily explain it.
watched a year later. today 10 meters on fire. and I got out great with just coax. no antenna. well T2LT system. made with 50 feet of RG8X . start at one end measure down cut a tad long. make a mark . Sharpe I use. strip off outher cover . then remove shield. that 1 radio of a di pole. glue line heat shrink at this spot you strip off. measure down 1/4 wave mark it. then get 2 1/2 in PVC . can use 2 in. drill hole in 1 end for coax. wrap around 19 turns of coax. drill second hole . cut PVC to just longer than coil. that becomes common mode choke . put PL 259 on 1 end . slip PVC over DX commander pole . put the end on with tape . put it up with tape to hold it to pole. then tune . to tune bottom element slip coil on PVC . once you get tune tape or zip tie coax to PVC to hold in place. same center fed di pole like you did hear but made with just coax. Vertical T2LT coax antenna. made a lot of FT8 on it. on 10 meters. put some power in it . 500 watts. after a wile the coil gat a little warm. pretty good for 8X . a outher fun antenna . I got a 6 meter one all tuned and ready. but M & P coax. hyper flex 7 used. but 25 ft . love your antenna build. 73's
Hey Walt, N7BWB here. You convinced me to buy one of N9SAB's indestructible dipoles with this video! I've been looking for something light and indestructible for my 12 meter Spiderbeam and in a vertical configuration this is just the ticket. I, too, come from a background of SWL and MW Dxing (I have a WRVA QSL card from the 60's, heard from San Jose, California on a Hallicrafters SX-28) and never seemed to shake the bug after all these years. Still going after the MWDX. This will be the perfect companion for my G90. Cheers and 73 from chilly Idaho.
Very nice - I need to get my 10m dipole up. Used to have a MCAS helicopter base nearby to me but they moved to San Diego. Kind of miss it, but like you there - sometimes not so much.
Hi Walt, Glad you made it home safe. 10m getting better and better. I have a 5 element yagi at home for the band. You and your family stay safe and have a Happy Holidays. 73 WJ3U
Can't wait to try something like this, so thanks for the video! Did you use a 50' cable for a specific reason, or just because that's what you brought with you?
Antennas are so.much fun, when I can't be on the solder bench building my Two Tin Tunas II Super Tuna Station I am building antennas instead, at least that is what my XYL KB9YYI thinks, lol. I enjoy your videos, sir. 72, Davey - KU9L
I built one of these today and set it up in my front yard on a approx 30 foot (9m) fiberglass fishing pole. I was a bit disappointed with the SWR. Minimum was around 1.8:1. I suppose it was affected by the bottom end of the dipole being close to the ground. Will be interesting to see how it performs when I set it up on a SOTA summit. Band was completely dead and I couldn't hear any other stations this morning.
Great video. Gotta love the simple little bnc to banana dipole operation. Though I'm surprised as a guy cutting his own "cheap Walmart speaker wire" you didn't also wind your own 1:1 and save a few pennies. I'm working up a few inside PVC Ts with SO239s that should handle a full 100w on a 31 mix for lower bands. Should probably do a 43 mix or 2 for 10m fun. Gonna gift a couple to some buddies just getting their ham tickets so they can get a dipole with a band or 3 up.
Just put this together in about :10 and works way better than a EFHW that I was trying. 5w and a IC705 1000 mile contacts no problem. Easiest antenna I’ve made yet!
EFHW is great for multi band or if you can't easily feed the center but a simple dipole or even fan dipole always wins if you can center feed and hang it IMHO. Much bigger than this guy and you need to look at going horizontal or doing some coil loading probably. That or what the seller of the pole this guy's using does and go quarter wave vertical with ground radials which Is probably the second easiest setup for a new ham both ease of use and wallet wise.
@@MarkoManiac EFHW is _by definition_ a dipole. The only difference to a mid-feed dipole is that it's fed at the end. If you mount the EFHW vertically, you'll get exactly the same on the air behavior as what's shown in this video. If you're experiencing worse performance with an EFHW than a traditional midfeed dipole, it's because your specific 49:1 to 64:1 unun is inefficient. Poorly designed and implemented unun can rob you 3dB or more of power. 3dB means have the power from the transmitted goes into heating up the toroid and cable, rather than being radiated.
@RobertLeeAtYT No transformer is 100% efficient. Most EFHWs will loose 15-30% totheir transformer depending on the toriod/windings and particular band of operation. You'll find if you go hang both a dipole is a bit quieter on the receive also. Nothing against EFHWs one is my main antenna right now as the convenience of needing only to support the 2 ends vs an additional center feedpoint was easier at my current location. I am scheming on a fan dipole for my favorite few daylight bands and have a simple ground mount vertical on the way.
I use a 4 metre total length horizontal open aluminium dipole for high HF and low VHF DX. Dipole height is only 3.5 metres above ground. Two 12mm diameter 2 metre length rods are mounted on a white polyethylene cutting board. The cutting board is clamped to the top of the mast. The dipole is intentionally mismatched to provide wider bandwidth coverage by using a standard 300:75 Ohm 4:1 TV type balun connected to RG6 75-ohm coax. On the 10 metre band, a 2 Watt 28.2245 MHz YB9BWN Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia CW beacon was easily heard via F2 at 2863 miles. The dipole also easily receives a 1 Watt 40.687 8m band beacon via Es at 1432 miles. This could also form the basis of a temporary mobile directional dipole because the 3.5 metre mast is clamped to a steel fence post at my home.
New ham here - N6OAJ. Am I to understand that the reason a 10m dipole can be configured vertical or horizontal with no real difference in reception is because after the freq skips it changes polarity anyway? If you were talking local you would want to be polarized the same as the receiving station for best results correct?
Walt, my learned friend, I was unable to hear how you attach your wire to the pole at the midpoint. Tell me what it is and where do you find them. Did you use the same method at the top of the pole? I know that only you know the answers!
Hey Walt, being such an old video I hope you get this. I've been piddling with this same antenna vertically for a while now. It works great and the g90 can tune for 12 as well. Mine on the upper most element is around 30 feet high hanging on an oak limb. Would I gain performance if I were to double that height? I have a much higher branch where I can achieve this. Thanks for your input, 73's. One other question, have you tried a parasitic element on this antenna for gain and direction? Thanks again.
Thanks for commenting! Yes I think you would definitely see an advantage by elevating it. I have always wanted to build this one with a parasitic element, I even drew up a sketch with all the dimensions to do it. I just haven’t done it yet. Thanks for the interest, I might do it soon. 73, Walt
Hi Walt, how about a review of all the different antenna you used when in Poland, how easy to set up, how efficient and which one you would go to etc. 73 de Mike G1ZRN.
Have you ever tried vertical versus horizontal polarisation to determine which provides the highest SNR? Even though the received distances are impressive in your video, the signals sound quite noisy. This could be due to nearby QRM lowering the SNR. But my experience suggests that horizontal generates less noise. But I also understand that vertical polarisation is more convenient to setup in a temporary portable location.
No none at all, I tried to get it as close as I could to perpendicular but maintaining the 5 meter high feedpoint was a challenge. The fence helped and it looks like the balun/choke did it’s job.
I just built a 6/10 meter hex beam. It's surprisingly small, (about 8 feet across) high signal to noise ratio, and incredible performance. Might be worth a try for you! VA3IRF
@@COASTALWAVESWIRES ,they are amazing. I switch from the end fed to the hex, the static disappears, signals come in from an almost silent background, and my signal reports go up by 2 points at the reicieving station. Stations I couldn't even hear from New Zealand and Oz just suddenly come in. Would not have believed it myself until I tried it! Unfortunately, I don't have real estate for a full multiband (6,10, 12, 15, 17, 20) , but it sure kicks butt on the 2 bands i do have!
Any thoughts on the discontinuation of the FT-818ND? Seems like something might’ve been interested in because it’s such a popular QRP radio and it’s not an SDR
@@COASTALWAVESWIRES Sounds like they’re gonna have to work their butts off to make anything comparable. I expect the replacement, if they release one, to be a lot more expensive
Walt, what do you think about doing this without the balun? (or I guess the better question is : does the vertical orientation make it necessary to use the balun?)
My thoughts in using the balun is that it’s just choking at the feed point and reducing any effect the coax might have on the radiation pattern. I’m sure this could be done without the balun but probably not perform as well
Hi Walt, how are you? I have an idea about all you antennas. Maybe you should take all your drawings ( they are quite well made) and put them in a book. I hope you will think about it. I'll be the first to buy your book Greetings Fred, PA0TSE
@@COASTALWAVESWIRES It would be a great antenna regardless of course, I have a 5/8th vertical that is resonant like yours which is useable in the CW/digital portion and the FM portion without a tuner. The lowest SWR is around 28.6, it's around 1.5:1 at the bottom and the top.
10foot pole or 10 meter? You said 10 foot but have meters. Also is this cut at 8feet and 1/4 inch? Just curious. I built this twice following yours and my swr is horrible. Maybe the center needs to be up higher. How high would you say your balun is?
10 meter pole. 8.24’ = 8’- 2 7/8” so your legs are nearly 2 and a half inches too short which would make the overall antenna length nearly 5 inch short which would definitely kill your SWR. Here’s a link to a drawing I did on this antenna: instagram.com/p/CmYzoSxO0JG/
G'day Walt, I'm wondering what type coax cable are using on vertical? Thank you for your videos which I enjoy, 73 see you mate. de Dennis vk4oc. and you really enjoy ham radio ,cheers and beers mate.
