The lightweight alternative a twin-lead folded dipole |
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| Do you travel
bringing the rig, power supply, antenna and 25 meter of
coax in the luggage? Did you ever wonder why coax have to be so heavy and so rough to handle at low temperatures? Here is a project that can ease your travel load. A folded dipole made from lightweight TV twin-lead is a great antenna when travelling light. Although this antenna is not as broad as a standard folded dipole, the bandwith is enough to cover 26 to 28 MHz with reasonable SWR. The impedance of the antenna is near 300 ohms, but this is brought down to 50 ohms by placing a capacitive reactance at a specific distance (C) from the transmitter end of the twin-lead. |
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| Shorting connections must be made a short
distance inside the ends of the radiator as shown in the
figure. A 1:1 balun might be placed at the end of the
feed line to preserve balance of the feeder, but in most
cases the balance is not critical and the twin-lead can
be connected directly to the transciever. One lead is
connected to the PL-259 center contact, the other lead to
chassis. Have fun! This antenna was originally developed by Jay Rusgrove, W1VD, and Jerry Hall, K1TD for use on ham radio bands. Conversion to 11 meter is done by 21AT116, Chris. Artwork and text on this page is the property of 21AT116, Chris. This site is created and maintained by 21AT116, Chris. |
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