Simple Ham Radio Antennas--Short Top Band Antenna. Post #984.

Short Top Band Antenna
(http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=32392).
Accessed on 17 December 2016, 23:25 hrs, UTC, Post #984.
Author:  DJ0IP
Please click link or enter the title URL into your browser to read the complete article.

Comment:

One of the significant drawbacks of antennas designed for the 160 meter band is the large size of the antennas involved.  A full-length dipole cut for "Top Band" can measure as much as 265-feet/80.79 meters from end-to-end. Not many of us have access to such large dimensions on a typical urban lot.

Compromise 160 meter band antennas can be used, including vertical helixes, magnetic loops, and coil-loaded shortened dipoles.  The efficiency of such antennas is usually low.

In this post, DJ0IP uses a design from Alfred Kluess (DF2BC) to make a very short dipole fed by two types of balanced line which is then attached to a homemade split-stator capacitor and heavy duty coil.  This foreshortened dipole works only on 160 meters.  The matchbox is designed to handle the high rf currents present with this antenna arrangement. The article contains a step-by-step procedure to design, build, and use this antenna.  This short top band antenna may be preferable to other types of compromise antennas.  According to DF2BC, this antenna performs well in NVIS (near vertical incident skywave) applications and can be taken to the field if the need arises.


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Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).

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Thank you for visiting my Amateur Radio Blog. I value your comments and suggestions. For Amateur Radio Antenna Topics and Discussions, stay here. For Amateur Radio News and Trends, please visit my news site at https://bigislandarrlnews.com.
Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).

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