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Questions on broadband antenna design (e.g. T2FD)
One of the unfortunate things about a T2FD is that there are going to
be frequencies where most of your power warms up the feet of the birds perching on the termination resistor :-( Yeah, this is exactly what I'm trying to avoid, by careful choice of design parameters like length, resistor value, balun type. Feeding the antenna with 100 watts and having all 100 of those watts dissipated in the resistor, at any frequency within my range of 4 to 9, isn't going to work. If I can't keep the efficiency above 50 percent across the range, then it probably isn't going to be worth doing. Narrowing the frequency range isn't going to help much with the design. I'm no expert, but if I read my signs correctly, the T2FD has the same ups and downs in SWR as does most other multiband antennas. IOW, it relies on frequency harmonic relationships. Cebik has a good web page at: http://www.cebik.com/wire/t2fd.html Looks like a very useful page. And, the section down at the bottom labelled "Terminator Resistor Losses" tells the sad tale. With both of the designs Cebik modelled, the power loss into the termination resistor is only rarely less than 50%. For the longer of the two models (165', wide spacing) the losses between 4 MHz and 9 MHz range from 4 dB to over 6 dB, with an average loss of around 5 dB. It looks as if it might be possible to model/design a T2FD with an intermediate length and spacing, which might result in average losses in the 4 - 9 MHz range which are lower than either the 100' or 165' models. However, from the shape of these curves I doubt that you'll get the average loss down much below 5 dB. Even getting the average loss down below 3 dB looks as if it won't happen, and I don't think you're going to ge the worst-case loss down below 3 dB at all. You might want to go back and reconsider the possibility of using a feedpoint-mounted autotuner - in particular, one which has a frequency-based tuning memory capability and fast-retune feature, and which does not require a large amount of RF power to initiate a tune. Some such tuners require only a couple of watts of RF in order to tune, and can re-tune to a previously-memorized frequency and match-set within a couple of hundred milliseconds. I believe that an autotuner of this sort would be compatible with low-power ALE, as long as you had "pre-programmed" it by doing a full tuning cycle at each frequency in the range you're interested in, and given it a chance to search for and "memorize" a suitable match. The lady who has demo'ed ALE at a number of hamclubs in my area (regrettably I don't recall her callsign) uses an ALE-equipped military radio, and a Motorola (or Harris?) longwire autocoupler hooked to a random length of wire and a counterpoise. -- Dave Platt AE6EO Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads! |
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Questions on broadband antenna design (e.g. T2FD)
On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:29:39 +0000, Dave Platt wrote:
the section down at the bottom labelled "Terminator Resistor Losses" tells the sad tale. Yes, it does. My heartfelt thanks to all of you for all of your assistance and advice. I think I have enough info now to guide my experimentation and come to a conclusion. Doesn't look promising... |
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