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Building a 80M OCF Dipole

10 Oct, 2008 2 Comments

I’m going to build and install an 80M offcentre fed dipole. This is a multiband HF antenna (if feed via an antenna tuner).

I built one previously (approx 3 years ago). It was a great antenna. ifed it via a 4:1 balum, and my antenna tuner. Although not as good as the G5RV on 20M, the antenna worked equally well,or better thn the G5RV on the other HF bands. My antenna tuner had no trouble matching this antenna for 80M – 10M.

Details for this antenna can be found here.

Cushcraft A627013S Multiband Beam (6M-70CM)

10 Oct, 2008 2 Comments

I have a cushcraft Multiband Beam for use from 6M to 70cm. Info is available here.

Cushcraft A627013S

Cushcraft Installed - Old Place

G5RV

10 Oct, 2008 No Comment

This is another great antenna. This is primarily my main station antenna currently. Useable from 80M to 6M via an antenna tuner. Additional details of this wonderful antenna are available here.

Note however. I have discovered a few things about this antenna. Although I can tune it to 160M with my antenna tuner, it is unwise. 2ndly, I would suggest not using a balun at the end of the feedline (especially if using high power, as core saturation might result). I have ran the feeder directly to my antenna tuner (it has balanced ant terminals). Also, I have simply used 300Ohm TV ribbon as the feeder for this antenna, with good success.

G5RV Antenna installed

V Beam

10 Oct, 2008 1 Comment

More info on the v-beam can be found here. Basically, I used this simple design. I have to report, that although I am still testing the antenna, and working on a better mounting method, this antenna does seem to perform excellently. Here are some pics, and detail of the hub (made of wood for now).