[digitalradio] Re: Half Square Antenna
For a good number of years I did allot of experimenting with 1/2 wave inverted L's and T's on 160 meters with no ground system and had very good results. I published a web page about it at http://www.wcflunatall.com/nz4o9.htm One night on 160 meters with 100 watts on SSB I got a 10 over S9 report from a station in England from here in Florida. 73, Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA http://www.nz4o.org --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, KH6TY kh...@... wrote: Tom, with voltage feed, you only need an electrostatic ground. I used about 10' x 10' of chicken wire for a ground sheet under mine in Hawaii. 73, Skip KH6TY Thomas wrote: What Andy and Skip said, plus a top corner feed causes a pattern distortion in the broadside that narrows the beam width a bit. A bottom element feed through a parallel network has no pattern distortion but requires ground radials. However you can put down a very minimal ground radial system compared to a 1/4 wave vertical. I used only one 1/4 wave on mine and it worked fine. 73, Thomas NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA http://www.nz4o.org --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com mailto:digitalradio%40yahoogroups.com, kf4hou kf4hou@ wrote: Hey Tom Which is the better way of feeding the Half Square what is the plus and minus of both? Voltage vs. Current Fed I used a half square on 17 meters in Colorado in 1995 at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I voltage fed it with a parallel LC network and one 1/4 wave radial. The flat top phasing line was only 13 feet off of the ground with the antenna broadside Europe and the Pacific. The results: 100 countries in 30 days with 100 watts. A serious DX antenna. I also put up a half square on 160 in Colorado, with the same voltage feed. I linear loaded each 1/4 wave leg into two each 1/8 wave 64 foot sections and it worked fantastic. I had a big signal with 100 watts. 73 GUD DX, Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA nz4o@ NZ4O Amateur SWL Autobiography: http://www.nz4o.org
[digitalradio] Re: Half Square Antenna
What Andy and Skip said, plus a top corner feed causes a pattern distortion in the broadside that narrows the beam width a bit. A bottom element feed through a parallel network has no pattern distortion but requires ground radials. However you can put down a very minimal ground radial system compared to a 1/4 wave vertical. I used only one 1/4 wave on mine and it worked fine. 73, Thomas NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA http://www.nz4o.org --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, kf4hou kf4...@... wrote: Hey Tom Which is the better way of feeding the Half Square what is the plus and minus of both? Voltage vs. Current Fed I used a half square on 17 meters in Colorado in 1995 at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I voltage fed it with a parallel LC network and one 1/4 wave radial. The flat top phasing line was only 13 feet off of the ground with the antenna broadside Europe and the Pacific. The results: 100 countries in 30 days with 100 watts. A serious DX antenna. I also put up a half square on 160 in Colorado, with the same voltage feed. I linear loaded each 1/4 wave leg into two each 1/8 wave 64 foot sections and it worked fantastic. I had a big signal with 100 watts. 73 GUD DX, Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA nz4o@ NZ4O Amateur SWL Autobiography: http://www.nz4o.org
Re: [digitalradio] Re: Half Square Antenna
Tom, with voltage feed, you only need an electrostatic ground. I used about 10' x 10' of chicken wire for a ground sheet under mine in Hawaii. 73, Skip KH6TY Thomas wrote: What Andy and Skip said, plus a top corner feed causes a pattern distortion in the broadside that narrows the beam width a bit. A bottom element feed through a parallel network has no pattern distortion but requires ground radials. However you can put down a very minimal ground radial system compared to a 1/4 wave vertical. I used only one 1/4 wave on mine and it worked fine. 73, Thomas NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA http://www.nz4o.org --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com mailto:digitalradio%40yahoogroups.com, kf4hou kf4...@... wrote: Hey Tom Which is the better way of feeding the Half Square what is the plus and minus of both? Voltage vs. Current Fed I used a half square on 17 meters in Colorado in 1995 at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I voltage fed it with a parallel LC network and one 1/4 wave radial. The flat top phasing line was only 13 feet off of the ground with the antenna broadside Europe and the Pacific. The results: 100 countries in 30 days with 100 watts. A serious DX antenna. I also put up a half square on 160 in Colorado, with the same voltage feed. I linear loaded each 1/4 wave leg into two each 1/8 wave 64 foot sections and it worked fantastic. I had a big signal with 100 watts. 73 GUD DX, Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA nz4o@ NZ4O Amateur SWL Autobiography: http://www.nz4o.org
[digitalradio] Re: Half Square Antenna
Hey Tom Which is the better way of feeding the Half Square what is the plus and minus of both? Voltage vs. Current Fed I used a half square on 17 meters in Colorado in 1995 at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I voltage fed it with a parallel LC network and one 1/4 wave radial. The flat top phasing line was only 13 feet off of the ground with the antenna broadside Europe and the Pacific. The results: 100 countries in 30 days with 100 watts. A serious DX antenna. I also put up a half square on 160 in Colorado, with the same voltage feed. I linear loaded each 1/4 wave leg into two each 1/8 wave 64 foot sections and it worked fantastic. I had a big signal with 100 watts. 73 GUD DX, Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O Lakeland, FL, USA n...@... NZ4O Amateur SWL Autobiography: http://www.nz4o.org
Re: [digitalradio] Re: Half Square Antenna
On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 6:29 AM, kf4hou kf4...@hotmail.com wrote: Hey Tom Which is the better way of feeding the Half Square what is the plus and minus of both? Voltage vs. Current Fed The antenna may be fed at the bottom or at a corner. When fed at a corner, the feed point is a lowimpedance, current-feed. When fed at the bottom of one of the wires against a small ground counterpoise, the feed point is a high-impedance, voltage-feed. http://rudys.typepad.com/ant/files/antenna_halfsquare_array.pdf Andy K3UK
Re: [digitalradio] Re: Half Square Antenna
For what it's worth, I've done it both ways. With a voltage feed it is easy for the coax to leave the antenna on the ground and just use a screen for a ground. With current feed at the corners, the coax is up in the air and needs to leave at right angles to the vertical wire, but no tuned circuit is needed, and no RF ground. 73, Skip KH6TY kf4hou wrote: Hey Tom Which is the better way of feeding the Half Square what is the plus and minus of both? Voltage vs. Current Fed
