ON3JT

Last sunday I attended a hamfest in Bladel, The Netherlands, organised by PI4KAR.  From my qth it is a one hour drive to one of the niciest and last hamfests of the year. I had no special needs to look out for but after a while I stumbled on a Diamond W735 antenna. The W 735 is a 2-band loaded dipole for 80 and 40m. Overall length reduced from normal dipole dimensions by use of loading coils rather than traps. Overall length is 26m, fits just on the roof.

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First I tried to build a Cobwebb antenna. It is a small antenna and rather easy to build. I used cheap fishing rods, costing 4 to 5 euro each, from a known sports hardware shop. The funny thing was when I asked the sales person if the rods contain carbon fibers he mentioned that I’m not the first asking. He says = “Some people use them to make antennas…”. Big smile when I replied to do the same. Bought speakerwire and started cutting and soldering. Finally the first dipole was attached to the big cross. Added in total 4 dipoles when I wanted to test it. It was a small disapointment. Only 400 kHz usable bandwidth on 10m. The 12m and 17m were usable. But 15m also lacked the necessary bandwidth. That, the mechanical instability and difficulties (more…)