I'm using a homebrew dipole at the moment. It is a fairly typical one,
with coax going to a 4:1 balun. Short side 40 some feet, and ~135 feet
total. Roughly What I am curious about is that 80 meter operation is
pretty good, 40 meters is good also, but on 20 meters it, for lack of a
better word, sucks.

Is the OCF multi-band antenna a dog on 20 meters?

- Mike KB3EIA -

Mike Coslo wrote:
I'm using a homebrew dipole at the moment. It is a fairly typical one,
with coax going to a 4:1 balun. Short side 40 some feet, and ~135 feet
total. Roughly What I am curious about is that 80 meter operation is
pretty good, 40 meters is good also, but on 20 meters it, for lack of a
better word, sucks.

Is the OCF multi-band antenna a dog on 20 meters?

EZNEC sez it has about 8 dBi maximum gain in an 8-lobed
pattern with 4 major lobes. It should be a pretty good
antenna in certain directions. If you are expecting good
20m broadside performance, which it has on 40m, then you
will be disappointed.

If the antenna is running N/S or E/W, the major lobes on
20m will roughly be in the NE, NW, SE, & SW directions in
a "cloverleaf" pattern.

You can see all this for yourself by downloading the free
demo version of EZNEC from http://www.eznec.com
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp


----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

Hi Mike:

Did you miss my presentation on OFC dipoles awhile back at the club meeting?
The pattern on 20M is a clover leaf with gain with the main lobes at about
45 deg to the wire. We saw this at field day with the antennas broad side to
the west we had great signals into Maine but not so good into the Midwest.


--
John Passaneau, W3JXP
State College, PA



"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
I'm using a homebrew dipole at the moment. It is a fairly typical one,
with coax going to a 4:1 balun. Short side 40 some feet, and ~135 feet
total. Roughly What I am curious about is that 80 meter operation is
pretty good, 40 meters is good also, but on 20 meters it, for lack of a
better word, sucks.

Is the OCF multi-band antenna a dog on 20 meters?

- Mike KB3EIA -

Mike Coslo wrote:
I'm using a homebrew dipole at the moment. It is a fairly typical
one,
with coax going to a 4:1 balun. Short side 40 some feet, and ~135
feet
total. Roughly What I am curious about is that 80 meter operation is
pretty good, 40 meters is good also, but on 20 meters it, for lack of
a
better word, sucks.

Is the OCF multi-band antenna a dog on 20 meters?

I ran into the same problem at the N2EY/W3RV Field Day site. The NW/SE
80M G5RV cooked on 80 & 40 but it wasn't so hot on 20/15 I assumed
because of the "lobes to nowhere useful" problem discussed above. So I
built conventional coax-fed 20 & 15M dipoles strung end-to-end and
installed them parallel with but lower than the G5RV from another pair
of trees. From here near the NE coast we now have major lobes aimed
southwestward on all four bands which seem to cover the whole country
and Canada quite well except directly off their ends. I suspect part of
the success of the 20/15M dipoles vs. the G5RV is attributable to lower
tuner losses, we don't need a tuner for 20 & 15.
- Mike KB3EIA -

w3rv