Has anyone thought of this?

[KG4CGC]

It's 2 folded dipoles and 3 baluns. The lower folded dipole connects to both baluns with no short across the balun but like a folded dipole it is connected on the ends of the ladder or window line.
Has anyone thought of this? What's wrong with it?


http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/Dog%20Walk/Folded_Dipole_Triple_Bulun_Antenna_zps7ec110ad.jpg

[NQ6U]

I'm not good with computer modeling of antennas but I suspect that impedance matching issues might present a problem. Only way to know for sure is to either model it with EZNEC or build the thing and hook it up to an antenna analyzer to see what you get.

[KG4CGC]

I'm not good with computer modeling of antennas but I suspect that impedance matching issues might present a problem. Only way to know for sure is to either model it with EZNEC or build the thing and hook it up to an antenna analyzer to see what you get.
Well let's just say that the impedances all match up and we're using the proper baluns.

[NQ6U]

What's the distance in fractions of a wavelength of the cable between the two antennas?

[KG4CGC]

What's the distance in fractions of a wavelength of the cable between the two antennas?
50 feet but that shouldn't matter since the top will be perpendicular with the bottom.

[NQ6U]

Doing some research now....

One thing that occurs to me is that the characteristic impedance of a half-wave folded dipole is roughly 280 ohms, so if you use 300 ohm twin lead, you could lose two the the three baluns.

[KG4CGC]

Doing some research now....

One thing that occurs to me is that the characteristic impedance of a half-wave folded dipole is roughly 280 ohms, so if you use 300 ohm twin lead, you could lose two the the three baluns.
Wouldn't depend on what kind you used?
3:1/4:1/6:1 ???

[NQ6U]

Wouldn't depend on what kind you used?
3:1/4:1/6:1 ???

I don't understand that. What I'm saying is that the characteristic impedance of the two folded dipoles is close enough to that of twin lead that you can do away with two of the baluns and 50 feet of coax, reducing weight, cost and complexity. When it comes to building antennas, I'm for all those things.

[KG4CGC]

I don't understand that. What I'm saying is that the characteristic impedance of the two folded dipoles is close enough to that of twin lead that you can do away with two of the baluns and 50 feet of coax, reducing weight, cost and complexity. When it comes to building antennas, I'm for all those things.

Well now you're just raining on my parade.

[K7SGJ]

Is this a fractal design?

[KG4CGC]

Is this a fractal design?

No. Just coax, balun, wire, balun, coax, balun, wire.

[KG4NEL]

Just FWIW...the pattern of a full-size 80M doublet is probably "cloverleafed" enough by 20M that a separate antenna for the higher bands in a different direction is unnecessary. Been a while since I've seen the NEC plots, but W4RNL did a good write-up on it, including takeoff angles and all that good shit.

But hey, my antenna modeling procedure consists of throwing the longest hunk of wire I can find and throwing it into them yonder trees, and seeing if the autotuner will like it.

[NA4BH]

But hey, my antenna modeling procedure consists of throwing the longest hunk of wire I can find and throwing it into them yonder trees, and seeing if the autotuner will like it.

What he said, but with a manual tuner. By the way, it's BALUM. Don't you listen to 2 meter?

[KG4NEL]

Or its closely-related cousin, the Umum.

As in "Umum, that sammich is fiiiiiiiiiine".

[W3WN]

Is this a fractal design?Don't say that! Are you trying to bring the wrath of Dr. Chippy upon us?