Hi all,

it's time to build new antennas for V/UHF season. Until now I always
used over the boom insulated elements mounting and in almost all cases
folded dipoles with 4:1 coaxial balun/transformer. In one case I
changed this driven element to a simple split dipole because the
antenna didn't seem to work well (when in facts was my homebrew tx
which wasn't working really well).
Now I read in some web pages that split dipoles work better for yagis
(no balun loss, balun is narrowband, split dipole can be easily
tuned...). This make enough sense to me (doesn't it?) so I'm willing
to use this driven element on the new antennas.
Now the question for the experts:

is this driven element really "better"? How about braid currents?

In the future yagis I want to use insulated through the boom elements
(they are really easier to manufacture for me this way). With folded
dipole the element's plane will pass approximately on the center of
the folded dipole gap, if however the driven element is a split
dipole, this element will be mounted over the boom and insulated for
mechanical and electrical reasons, thus the driven element will lay in
a different plane than all the other elements. Is this acceptable?

Thanks in advance for all hints.

best 73 de
IZ8DWF Francesco