Analyzed dipoles
With only a few hours to go in this long weekend, there was a need for motivated effort. Mowing the lawn had to be scratched, sadly. Too much accumulated moisture on the grass (from that rainshower earlier) to safely pass an electric mower. Not enough daylight to go anywhere. But there’s my antenna project…
I want to pack three resonant dipoles for my time near the beach. The center insulators were done. The wires were roughcut to the desired frequencies. Time to get out on my antenna range and make some measurements. I’m blessed with a cedar hedge along the rear property line that happens to be about the length of a 40-meter dipole. By extension, I can also test wires of shorter length; 30-meter and 20-meter come to mind. Now, this is amateur time. No IEEE standards in place. No appreciable height above ground. I’m comfortable with eye level, and so it shall be.
I tied my insulator eyelets in one end of each arm of the dipole, and then set the starting frequency on the antenna analyzer. Yes, science to the rescue in a world that has relied on trial and error for three decades. Using the cedar hedge as a ready support, I was in a position to begin the “chop until it resonates where you want it” process.
The first test run was as predicted – my antenna was too long. Sidecutters in hand, I simply shortened the wire, a few centimeters/inches at a time, and watched the resonant point on the graphing screen approach the lower band limit. Within minutes, I had my first dipole tuned and coiled away.
Two more runs, with the same technique, and the job was done. I can now experiment to my heart’s content; hey, if we return to the Rock, I could test to my heart’s content in Heart’s Content. Just a thought.
