Ralph Mowery wrote:
"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...
Before I go too much further, Hams should build their own wire antennas.
No excuses.


For some hams, it is cheeper to just buy the wire antennas. By the time you
go to the store or order some wire, get the coax, get the insulators, get
one or two coax connectors, and maybe a balun , it may be cheeper to just
get all in one place for one price.

Side note: I was at a Ham supply store this past year, and I was looking
for some window line. They had a dipole antenna that included window
line for about half the price of the same amount of window line by
itself. That's probably the only good excuse IMO to buy a pre-made wire
antenna.

But I don't build my own antennas to save money. I'm trying to learn
something. Can I design and cut and install the antenna, and does it
perform as my design says it does?




I do build all my wire antennas because
I can get the wire for free and found some insulators for nothing. If
building trap dioples or other special wire antenas, the parts issue is even
greater.

Never built a trap dipole. I'm going to have to try it some day. I guess
the major advantage will be that it won't be so lobey as a longer wire
tuned for the higher frequency. But hey, the experimentation is the fun.

I'm not here to convince anyone that my antenna is bigger than theirs!
;^) he he.

I have an OCF antenna at 45 feet that I use for 80 and 40 meters. It works
much beter than an 80 meter dipole antenna at 25 feet usually. They are at
right angles to each other. I do have a beam for other bands so do not care
how it works on the higher bands. It does seem to have a larger bandwidth
than the regular dipole on 80 meters.

Yeah, I did okay on 80 and 40 too. That was my thing with the OCF. It
just seemed to be at best a 2 band antenna,
IIRC, the bandwidth was a little bigger on my OCF.

All antennas are a compromise of some sort, and the OCF is within the
acceptable range.