A dipole is a half wave antenna no matter where it is fed. The "dipole" designation is not related to center feed, but to the fact that the antenna has exactly two "poles" or voltage loops - one at each end.
The end feed is truly an advantage in portable work and in some fixed stations located at one end of the obvious best antenna run. The caveat with such a feed arrangement is that it requires a means of matching the 50 ohm impedance of the coax (and most modern transmitters) to the very high impedance (typically several thousand ohms) at the end of the dipole. That can be done with the transmission line, such as the famous original Zepp antenna used on dirigibles that trailed a dipole radiator fed at the end by a 1/4 wavelength open wire feed line. At 1/4 wavelength the feeder converted the high impedance at the end of the dipole to a low impedance at the transmitter. But that requires a specific length of low-loss feeder such as open wire line; 50 ohm coax losses would be extremely high. So it all comes down to the efficiency of the matching network they have hidden in the little box. 73, Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- ...Not sure as I would call them a dipole because they are coax fed from the end that has the matching unit. Bottom line. One happy DX'er and QRP'er here. 73, Carey ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
