I'm just about getting around to making my 5 or 6 element marine band yagi,
covering 156 - 162 Mhz RECEIVE ONLY. Do I have to employ a folded dipole or
can I use just a simple hertz dipole as the "driven" element? I'm trying to
get away from using a folded dipole if I can. Any wideband designs out there
that use a simple hertz dipole that I can scale? I'm looking, but if you
have some links aready. TIA.


A folded dipole as the driven element will have the best match over your
frequency range..

What you do have to worry about is the feedpoint resistance. Some Yagi-Uda
designs are expressly designed for (a driven) folded dipole, which in isolation
have a much higher feed resistance than 50 ohms. When you put parasitics in the
near field, in certain gain-optimized Yagi-Uda designs, that feed resistance
falls closer to 50 ohms.

Typically, a non-matched regular dipole as driven has a feedpoint resistance of
much less than 50 ohms in a high gain Yagi-Uda app. Thus you may be seeing 1-2
dB or mismatch from this lower feedpoint resistance. Or you can make a T-match
(for example).

If you have s specific design that uses a folded dipole, I suggest you stick
with it. Unless you want to eat a dB or 2 in possible mismatch, or put a
matching system in on a conventional dipole as a driven.

73,
Chip N1IR