I will be attaching a 33' folded dipole for RX (made from 300 ohm
twinlead) to the underside of my wood deck. It will be horizontal.
Does it matter if the parallel conductors are in the horizontal or
vertical plane?

If I just staple the twinlead to the joists (most convenient and
invisible), the conductors will be in the horizontal plane.

Ken KC2JDY

Ken
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I will be attaching a 33' folded dipole for RX (made from 300 ohm
twinlead) to the underside of my wood deck. It will be horizontal.
Does it matter if the parallel conductors are in the horizontal or
vertical plane?

Short answer: No

Think of it this way, what's the separation distance, relative to a
wavelength?
If it's less than 0.05 wavelength, then any difference is almost certainly
unobservable at any significant distance.

You won't be using metal staples though, right?

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 10:34:21 -0500, "Dave VanHorn"
wrote:
You won't be using metal staples though, right?



Uhhhhhh. Was gonna.

ARRL tech dep't once told me that I could use metal staples on 1000
watt, 450 ohm ladderline. Figured this was the same thing. How much
coupling can a skinny, short staple every 32" inject on a 33 ft RX
antenna?

What are my options, other than staples or those old twinlead
standoffs?

Ken KC2JDY


Ken
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remove "zz" from address)

Ken,
Your original post said for "RX" receive purposes,
so staples or no staples would make about as much
difference as the color of the deck...
'Doc

"Ken" wrote in message
...
I will be attaching a 33' folded dipole for RX (made from 300 ohm
twinlead) to the underside of my wood deck. It will be horizontal.
Does it matter if the parallel conductors are in the horizontal or
vertical plane?

If I just staple the twinlead to the joists (most convenient and
invisible), the conductors will be in the horizontal plane.

So Ken

A couple years ago I wanted to cut a recieving dipole for a specific SWL
frequency (somewhere in the 15MHz band). I calculated the length carefully,
and then stapled the wire antenna to my fence (to be stealthy). Fed it with
RG-58, it should have worked pretty good, I thought. (even though it was
only abt 5 ft up).

After using it for a bit, I disconnected the coax shield at my reciever, and
the recieved signal jumped by a couple S-units. Surprise!

Here's what I decided: If I were to transmit to that dipole nailed to the
fence, I would do a lot of heating of the wood, and much less heating of the
ionosphere. Recieving would work the same.

Conclusion: A wire antenna located near a lossy medium like your deck won't
work like you want it to.

73,
PN2222A
(mildly saturated)