Guest Post by George Ure
Nov 1, 2020
https://urbansurvival.com/ham-radio-super-antenna-plans-build-results/
A Convenience Store Based Antenna
Ham radio operators world-wide would love an antenna that is cheap, easily built out of locally available parts – and outperforms both standard dipole antennas and other commonly-built wires. Well, here it is….
After almost a year of modeling our ideas for a “Super Antenna” the design was locked. It was built and put on the air during the CQ Worldwide contest last week.
It was a pile-up buster.
In a space of 1/2-hour, I logged Portugal, Aruba, Italy, and somewhere in ITU Zone 29 (roughly Azerbaijan. Plus, uncountable contacts state-side. And when these basic signal contacts were done, had a nice +30dB over S-9 on C.W. (amp on, NY area from Texas).
All on an antenna you can make for about $65-bucks and a few hours work.
The “Secret Sauce”
Every antenna builder/designer claims they have some “secret sauce.” I’m no different. EXCEPT that I have run my “secret sauce” through countless iterations modeling.
Setting up modeling software is important for proper evaluation. In EZ-NEC (pro), careful attention was paid to setting up both the ground conditions (Real- High Accuracy) as well as the reference antenna (2.15 dBi) which enables dBd (decibels relative to a free-space (isotropic) dipole.
>>>> The “secret sauce” after all these iterations? Antennas work best when there are multiple conductors on one side of a center feedpoint. Usually, a couple of dB!
At the center, all these additional wires are connected together. At the far end of the antenna, they’re 3 to 6-inches apart but NOT tied together. The effect disappears if you do that…
Click here for the full report.
