[verticals2] Update October - November Sunday, November 5, 2006 9:00 AM From: "v44kf" Add sender to Contacts To: "Verticals2" Welcome to the new members that took this group over the 100 member mark before Christmas. I hope you find information on some aspect of vertical antennas in our discussions that help you to improve your vertical antenna installation. Further reading on vertical antennas convinces me that the double tee vertical dipole antenna is the simplest, most economical and most effective antenna for ham radio DXing especially on the low bands. I am still looking around for a better priced vertical antenna to replace the double tee vertical dipole. Now, the good news: The second double T dipole vertical element was installed and tuned up. The bad news: the element had to be taken down to facilitate an urgent construction project. So its back to the chain link fence which will position the second element at 320 degrees, to JA, but that will go up when the project ends and if we can find space. This is going to be some antenna experiment. More local hams are now interested in the double tee antenna and after November 31 we may see and hear them on the air. The simplicity and cheapness of the antenna and installation for its fantastic DX performance is the big attraction. The design is for a single band, but I read a post here that the antenna is used on an adjacent band with a tuner and worked well. 40 and 80 meter are my choice bands for now. To encourage some of our readers to consider trying out a double tee vertical dipole I will list the parts used for my portable 40 meter version. Tools needed are drill, screwdriver and hammer [a] one 6 ft to 8 ft long 2x4 lumber [b] one 6-ft long 3/4 inch to 1 inch rebar, [c] four 2" dia. x 4 inch long muffler clamps, [d] one 2.5 inch hose clamp [e] two 50 ft lengths of wire copper or 2.5 mm ins [f] aluminum tubing 1.0 inch to 1.5 inch OD . 20 ft long, [g] rubber pvc hose 1.5 inch ID or larger 2.5 ft long.. [h] one small guy wire clamp [I] so-239 coax socket with 6 inch to 9 inch wire tails This can be built from scratch in 15 minutes and assembled in less than 5 minutes. [a] Drill holes 1 inch up from each end of 2x4 to accept the u-clamps. [b] Drill holes 1.5 ft to 2 ft up from the end holes [a] for second u-clamps [c] Place u-clamp loosely in mount holes. [d] Hammer 3-ft of rebar into ground [e] Clamp one end of lumber to rebar [f] Hose clamp center of 50-ft wire to one end of 20-ft aluminum tubing [g] slip pvc hose over other end of tubing and clamp to top of 2x4 [h] to make antenna connection, drill hole in tubing end, fit nut and bolt for so-239 axial tail [I] drill hole in 2x4 two inches below insulated tubing end, [j] pass center of second 50-ft wire from back to front and clamp to so-239 ground tail [k] put insulators on the 4 antenna wire ends and guy off, top and bottom to same point. Notes: [a] Connect coax cable through current balun and fire it up. [b] Seems to work best with coax which is multiple half waves long. [c] Tune for antenna resonance mid-band not lowest SWR. [d] Load antenna with capacitance or inductance to bring SWR to 1.0. [e] My starting point is 10 ft RG59U for capacitance loading. This looks like a nice night/day antenna for some body. Up at night, down in the day. Hope I can work someone with a double tee vertical dipole on 7.195 or 7.090 soon. Have a great ham radio week. 73, Keeth V44KF __._,_.___ [verticals2] double-tee hatted vertical dipole antenna Wednesday, October 19, 2005 6:28 AM From: "v44kf" Add sender to Contacts To: "Verticals2" Cc: amateur_radio_carib@yahoogroups.com Hello Everyone Hello Everyone The first double-tee hatted 40-meter vertical dipole was built and is under test. [1] Vertical section = 20-foot, aluminum tubing 1.25 inch diameter. [2] Top hat = 44-foot wire, drooping about 50 degrees [3] Bottom hat = 44-foot wire, guyed level. [4] Resonant frequency = 7.127MHz [5] SWR = 1.4:1 [6] Bandwidth: 2:1 = 579 KHz On transmit the signal reports are much stronger on the double-tee hatted vertical dipole. On receive the hatted vertical dipole is significantly quieter, VK and ZL signals were stronger. I will convert the HF vertical monopoles into double-tee hatted vertical dipoles, until a light weight aluminum spoke hat assembly is engineered. If you have limited space this hatted vertical dipole antenna configuration is worth serious consideration The hurricane season ends in 6 weeks but I can't wait that long to build the 80-meter double-tee hatted vertical dipole. If the weather holds fair this antenna should be up by this weekend. More information and data on the double-tee hatted vertical dipoles can be found in L.B.Cebik's article Verticals without Vertigo, Chapter 7 at www.cebik.com/fdim/fdim4.html The complete article [pdf] is also posted in FILES at verticals2@yahoogroups.com Have a great ham radio day. 73, Keeth