On Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:04:51 -0500, Dave wrote:

wrote:

SNIPPED

It looks like a simple antenna, has a good reputation, but it doesn't
look very useful for anything. Unless there is a combination I'm
missing.

73 Tom


I've never worked with a Vee antenna. But, while stationed at Hill AFB,
Utah we used two of them back to back to make a Rhombic :-) to support
the South East Asia phone patch nets during the Vietnam conflict. Fixed
point to point communication [We had an LP that was used for stateside
COMMs]

My understanding is that a narrow beam is formed along the axis
[centerline] of the Vee. In a standing wave antenna, the beam is
bi-directional. In a terminated antenna, traveling wave, the pattern is
unidirectional. The narrow beam width reduces interference from
undesired directions.

Tom is correct. Vee beams and rhombics have horrible sidelobes that
make them in my estimation highly overrated. The vee is not completely
bi-directional, a couple of dB FB is not uncommon. A vee, just like a
rhombic can be terminated to increase the FB. If the legs are long
enough it -is- a traveling-wave antenna and is somewhat
self-terminating.

The claim for broadband gain is also suspect. There are optimum
parameters that are not frequency independent

Of course I can't fault VK5MC's three-stack rhombic that gave me my
two-meter WAC :-)


Total wavelength and included angle have significant impact on performance.

Of course.