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Old November 3rd 07, 02:46 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
John Ferrell John Ferrell is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 199
Default Fan Dipole insight

On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:54:36 -0700, Tim Shoppa
wrote:

I am very very proud that I hung a 80-Meter dipole about 100 feet
above my QTH last week.

But I also had a hankering to cover 40 Meters with it too (although I
already had a 40 Meter dipole). So the section in the antenna book
about fan dipoles came to mind.

I looked in the ARRL antenna book, it told me that the seperation of
wires was not all that important. So I sort-of duplicated one of the
sketches in the book, and hung the 40 meter wire from an tiny little
egg insulator on the 80 meter wire.

Result: DID NOT WORK AT ALL. No indication of any kind of antenna


I have had the same experience.

It turns out that more spacing is better and cut & try is better than
thinking too much about what you have. Consider extending the shorter
elements with nylon line to the end supports rather than hanging them
on separators. Fans work well as verticals too!

If you drop the end support it will tangle faster than a closet full
of coat hangers...

John Ferrell W8CCW
"Life is easier if you learn to
plow around the stumps"