ANTENNAS: PART II

For the DX University

Presented by
Pete Rimmel N8PR
Antenna types:
Wire antennas
-- Dipoles
-- G5RV
-- Zepp
-- Off center fed

Horizontal arrays
+Yagi
+Quad
+Wires
+Commercial

Verticals
- wave
-Arrays
-Commercial
DIPOLES

Almost all antennas are based on a variation of a

Half Wave Dipole. Most antennas are compared
to the radiation characteristics of a dipole.

A half wave dipole Dipole has a radiation

pattern like a figure 8.
In this figure the antenna is in the vertical axis
and radiation is maximal in the plane of the
wire, and minimal off the ends of the antenna.
Calculating the length of a Half Wave Dipole (bare wire
(for insulated wire deduct 2-3% for Vf)

For a /2 Dipole:

Length (ft.) = 468

f(MHz)
Example: A dipole resonant at 14.250 MHz

468 = 32.84 ft. = 32 ft. 10 inches

14.250
VOLTAGE ON THE WIRE On a Half Wave Dipole
the voltage at the feed point
is at a minimum, and at
a maximum but 180
degrees out of phase at
the ends of the wire.
CURRENT ON THE WIRE
On the same wire, the
current is at a maximum
at the feed point and a
minimum at the ends.
Here is why we do
not try to feed full
wave antennas at
the middle, or half
wave verticals at the
bottom.

We cannot feed an
antenna (generally)
at a high voltage
point. We must feed it at a voltage null which is also
a high current point A or B in the top part of the drawin
Until we got privileges on the WARC bands it was
relatively simple to build harmonic antennas which
would work reasonably well on the original ham
bands.

1.8 MHz x2 = 3.6 MHz \

3.6 MHz x2 = 7.2 MHz \
7.1 MHz x2 = 14.2 MHz |- all harmonically
7.1 MHz x3 = 21.3 MHz / related
14.2 MHz x2 = 28.4 MHz /

Unfortunately, the WARC bands do not fit into that

nice, neat mathematical relationship.
VERTICALS

Lets take that dipole and turn one of the horizontal

wires 90 degrees and make it into a vertical elemen
We still have a half wave
antenna, but one element is in the
vertical plane, and the other one is
in the horizontal plane.

This is a basic /4 vertical.

Currents and voltages are the same as they are

in a half wave dipole.

Now we can replace the horizontal element with

A counterpoise, radial system or ground.
Add three more /4 radials and you have made
a ground plane antenna. It can be a few feet above
the ground or elevated high above ground.

The feed point impedance of this antenna is

approximately 37 Ohms. By tipping the four
radials down about 45 degrees you can get a good
50 Ohm match to coax cable
 Here the /4 radials of the
antenna have been replaced
by a ground. The ground
reflection creates an image
that becomes the other
part of the half wave antenna.

The antenna can be fed against a

counterpoise laid on the ground. This
can be a few wires of random length
Ideally, 120 /4 to /2 radials will
create an efficient counterpoise
Loop antennas
Loop antennas share one common factor. The
ends
of a dipole antenna are connected together to
form a closed antenna. This antenna has more
gain
broadside to it than a dipole, if in the vertical
plane.
It is usually 1+5%long on the desired band.

Loop antennas are usually quieter than long wire

antennas. ie. They are less susceptible to man
made noise and static.
The large loop antenna is similar to a dipole, except
that the ends of the dipole are connected to form a
circle, triangle or square. Typically such a loop is
some multiple of a half or full wavelength in
circumference.
Good results can be had with a 1 loop.

A loop has a pattern similar to a dipole with the

maximum radiation broadside to the plane of the
loop. The minimum is in the plane of the loop.
 The Folded Dipole is a special case of
a closed loop antenna.
It is 1/2 long and only a few inches high.
A horizontal loop held up equally high at 4 corners
and fed with ladder line or a balun will perform
well on a number of bands. Its height above
ground will determine its vertical take off pattern.
Usually, on the low bands, it is used as a cloud
warmer to talk to near in stations.
It can be 1 or longer on desired bands. It must
be at least 1long on the lowest band used.
A round or square loop that is fed at the top or
center of the bottom leg will be horizontally polarized

A round or square loop that is fed in the middle of

the side will be vertically polarized.

HORIZONTALLY POLARIZED
QUAD LOOP
A delta loop that is fed /4 down from the top will be
vertically polarized. If it is fed at the top or the
middle of the bottom, or bottom corner, it will be
horizontally polarized
Before we talk about parasitic antennas and arrays,
lets talk about various wire antennas that we can
build and some general characteristics of some anten

Dipoles-- flat, sloping, inverted Vee

G5RV a special multiband dipole

Zepp end fed wire

Windom off center fed wire

Loops Square, Delta, Rectangle

Dipole antennas work best when horizontal. They als
work well when operated on odd multiples of a half
wavelength.
The take off angle of
a dipole or any horizontal
antenna is dependent on
its height above ground.

To the right are patterns

of a half wave dipole
from 1/8 wave above
ground to 2 wavelengths
above ground. This holds
for all HF Frequencies.

These patterns occur and

vary due to the ground
reinforcement and
reflection of the RF.
You can feed more than one dipole with the same
feed line, but you must keep the wires somewhat
separated to be effective, otherwise they interact
and detune each other and nothing works.
Sloping Dipoles must be resonant, and can be held
up by supporting one end higher than the other.

The feed line should be led away at right angles to

the wires. It will show a small gain in the direction
that the wire slopes.

Gain
Inverted Vee antennas are easy to erect because th
can be held up by only one support.

It is imperative that the included angle between th

two wires is greater than 90 degrees, otherwise
canceling will occur and the antenna will not radiat

The inverted vee has horizontal polarization broads

to the antenna and vertical components off the end
The G5RV antenna is a special dipole that by
design (or accident of properties) allows a dipole
that is fed with a special length of ladder line, a
balun and coax cable to radiate fairly well on the
HF bands.
This antenna is usually 102 feet long. The ladder
line
to it is 34 feet long. The two lengths added
together
in one instance create two ~/4 wires on 80
Meters,
and other resonant lengths for the higher bands
from
40 through 10 meters. It must be fed with a
 Connect 4:1 Balun and Coax from
Here to the Shack

G5RV Multiband Antenna

G5RV on
Various
Bands

A variant of this antenna can be fed with ladder line

all the way to a tuner in the ham shack.

It is best that this antenna be as horizontal as

possible, but sloping the ends down a bit will not
affect the antenna radiation patterns too much.
The Zepp antenna derives from the end fed wires
that trailed the zeppelin airship. It was end fed,
and unless it is an odd multiple of half wavelength
on the band desired, it will be difficult to feed.

The longer this antenna is in wavelengths, the mo

the pattern is skewed away from broadside radiat
toward a more end fire pattern.
Question:
How do you use an antenna tuner to tune an
antenna?

? ? ?
Question:
How do you use an antenna tuner to tune an
antenna?
Answer: You dont tune the antenna with a tuner.

You create a match between the transmitter and the

transmission line with a tuner. This allows the transmit
to put out its maximum power. If there is a poor match
the protection circuits for the solid state finals will cut b
on the output power of your rig.

NOTE: A pi-network final in a tube rig is a built in tune

Only by altering the antenna do you tune it or make

it resonant.
A Windom antenna is a wire antenna that must be
resonant. It is off center fed, which allows multi-band
operation if fed with ladder line. Ideally, the feed poin
is placed at a /4 away from one end on the favorite
band to be used. Hopefully, the other bands will still
find an acceptable match relative to that feed point. It
be fed with ladder line or a single wire feed.
Harmonically fed dipole
antennas
We know the typical
pattern of a half wave
dipole a figure 8

Here is the radiation

pattern when that same
wire is fed as a full
wave antenna the
pattern is now like a
4 leaf clover
 At Left is a 3/2
Antenna

These are higher

multiple patterns.

You can see how

the patterns skew
toward the ends as
the wire gets longer.
ARRAYS

Take the antennas we have just discussed and we

can create arrays of them to force the RF to be
focused in one or two directions. This creates
gain in those antennas relative to a dipole, loop
or vertical antenna.

These antennas are Yagis, Quads and phased vertical

arrays. The more elements, the more gain in a given
direction. This can be good and bad.

Good: We have more ERP in a given direction.

Bad: We cant hear or be heard in other directions.
The Yagi Uda Antenna
The Yagi antenna consists
of two or more elements.

The driven element is a

dipole and the directors
and reflector are called
parasitic elements.
They are resonant elements
and will cause the RF to
be reflected or directed in
a specific direction giving the
antenna gain in that direction
 The yagi antenna

ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR

-----------------
A 4 element Yagi polar plot shows that the Half Power
Beamwidth (3 dB down points) is about 50 degrees.

The antenna has about 8 dB gain over a dipole (dotted

line) and a front-to-back ratio of about 18 dB.

Since the pattern is broad, precise aiming is not necess

A 3 element Yagi, at various heights is compared
to a dipole at similar heights. The same amount
of radiated energy is seen by the area of both
curves being equal. Only the Yagi concentrates
the energy more in one direction.
As the number of elements increase, so does the
forward gain of the Yagi. Once it is 1 above
ground, the ground effects are lessened and the
antenna gain is as if it were in free space. Subtra
2.3 dB for reference to a dipole antenna.
In the early days
of Ham Radio, when
aluminum tubing
was not readily
available, Yagis were
made of wire and
suspended between
bamboo poles.

You could still make a

very effective antenna
this way, but rotating
it would be tough !!
The Lazy H antenna (left) and
the W8JK antenna (above) are
examples of wire arrays that
were widely used on the low
bands where size makes it quite
difficult to put up an aluminum
Yagi antenna.
The Hy Gain TH-11 covers 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 Mete
With good results. It weighs 88 pounds. Forward gain i
The area of 7.5 to 9.2 dBi depending on the band.
$1039.00
The Force 12 XR-5 antenna covers 5 bands 10/20M
It weighs 56 # and has gain figures approximately
4.5 dBd (6.7 dBi) on each band. It has two
active elements on each band. $1664.00
The Cushcraft MA5B 5 band trap yagi shows gain in t
3.5 to 5 dBd range for 10, 15, and 20M and unity wit
the resonant dipoles on 12 and 17 M. It weighs 26 #
and will handle 1200 W PEP. $489.95
There are many tribanders that are 2 to 6 element
trapped antennas. They cover the 10-15-20 Meter
Bands but not the WARC bands 12 & 17 M.

The reason that there are so many is that they have

been around much longer, since they were designed
before the WARC bands were created.

Also, they are in demand by contesters where only the

non-WARC bands are used.

To compliment them, there are duo-band trap yagis

available for 12 & 17 meters that can be added to a sta

Also, Single band yagi antennas are available for those

who prefer only one band, or want to stack them in a
Christmas tree array, or on several different towers.
The SteppIR series of antennas are the new generation
of technology. Each element in the Yagi or vertical
antenna slides inside a hollow fiberglass housing. Each
element length is continuously adjustable using a stepp
motor (thus the name) to make each element the prop
length for the operating frequency chosen. The adjustm
can be made manually or automatically. You can have
rig or logging program tell the antenna the frequency.
Quad antennas
Quad antennas are similar
to the Yagi antenna in that
they use a driven element
and a reflector and/or
directors to focus the RF in
a desired direction.

The only difference is that

the elements are loops and
not dipoles or linear elements
Being a loop antenna, the quad is a quieter receive
antenna. It has a gain figure per element a bit higher
than a Yagi. Remember a full wave loop has a gain
figure of 3 dB over a dipole to start with.
The quad is easily
placed on multiple
bands by interlacing
resonant elements
on each set of
spreaders. The
driven elements can
be driven in parallel
or individually.

Sometimes smaller
spreaders are used
to mount intermediate
elements for the
higher frequencies.
This creates a better
spacing between those
elements and adds gain.
The Delta loop quad is easy to build, but not
really suited to windy South Florida. It radiates
equivalent to a diamond or square shaped 2
element quad.
Vertical Arrays
Just like Yagi or Quad arrays of elements, the
vertical antenna is suited to creating gain in a
given direction. By arranging the elements in
a specific orientation and phasing how the RF
is delivered to the antennas, all elements are
usually active and radiating.

When the signals from the various elements

meet, they reinforce or cancel similar to waves
in a pond when several stones are thrown into
it simultaneously or in succession.

The radiation patterns are determined by element

spacing and phase lag or lead of the RF
Except for the ground plane verticals discussed earlier,
vertical antennas are usually best suited for the low ba
160, 80 and sometimes 40 Meters.

They can be /4 tall or trap/coil loaded to shorten them

If you have a large area, the verticals can be put up in

various configurations to give gain, just like Yagi antenn

2, 3, 4 or more verticals can be fed in or partially out of

phase to produce gain in a desired direction. This is a
topic that could consume several nights.
 1/81/43/81/2

The plots shown here 45

are for a pair of phased

verticals fed with equal
current each, with 90
spacing and phase lag

between the two

verticals as shown
135

180
4 - wave verticals
phased:
D C

B
A A B

All 4 verticals are fed diagonally with two in phase

and the leading and lagging corners fed 90 degrees
leading or lagging to produce gain as shown above.
A=+90deg.; B&D= 0deg.; C= -90 degrees phase.
Commercial, trapped
verticals can be made to
perform well on many of the
HF bands. They must be
fed against a counterpoise
or ground system.

(Right) Butternut HF9V 80-

6M
Vertical. $449.00
Exceptions to the need for
radials or a counterpoise are
the R5, R6, R8 and MFJ
verticals.

The R series are end fed half

wave antennas with a high
impedance matching system for
a feed.

(Right) Cushcraft R8 40-6M

Vertical $529.00
The MFJ is an off-center fed
vertical dipole with the
trapped lower resonant
parts of the antenna rotated
90 degrees.

(Right) MFJ 1798 80-2M

Vertical
$279.00
 This extendable
vertical can be used
at home or on an RV
or at field day.

It contains a flexible
wire and extends to
32 feet. When
nested it is 4 feet long.

Here an antenna tuner

feeds the vertical
against the chassis of
the RV as a counterpoise

Under $100.00