All begin reading the advice of a reseller on a Italian ham magazine, that
claim this (translated):

"The MFJ 1796 antenna only at XXX euro !!! 2,6,10,15,20,40 meters Superior
Half-Wave configuration !!"

Oh well, i'm really a rookie on antenna theory, but - thinking into myself -
someone at MFJ can please explain me what the hell make on this antenna to
shrink an half wave antenna on 40 meters into a stick shorter than quarter
wave??

Before posting the question on this NG to learn more, a look on MFJ site and
i read on the description:
"Full size halfwave on 2/6 Meters."
Ah right, someone here in Italy forget to specify *where* is 1/2 wl designed

But the funny thing is not what i tell until now... the funny (or sadly)
thing is that 7 local hams over 10, asking them if on 40 meters perform well
the MFJ 1796 or a common quarter wave antenna, reply "the 1796 for sure ! Is
a half wave designed antenna" someone adding also " you know antenna theory,
not ??"
Of the remaining 3 hams, 2 of this 3 replied with approximately my same
doubt ("what?? an half what ??")
A special mention to the last one that replied the dipole is the only
antenna that he consider. He said that vertical antenna is the best system
to deliver half or more applied power to the earth, no matter how is
designed. So he don't ever read the advice and don't reply to the original
question
....
Well, marketing and language misuse can add gain on an antenna, now i know
this

Sorry for my english, i hope that the sense of the story is clear to
readers.

73,
-.-. --.-

On Jun 27, 2:09*pm, "-.-. --.-" wrote:
All begin reading the advice of a reseller on a Italian ham magazine, that
claim this (translated):

"The MFJ 1796 antenna only at XXX euro !!! 2,6,10,15,20,40 meters Superior
Half-Wave configuration !!"

Oh well, i'm really a rookie on antenna theory, but - thinking into myself -
someone at MFJ can please explain me what the hell make on this antenna to
shrink an half wave antenna on 40 meters into a stick shorter than quarter
wave??

Before posting the question on this NG to learn more, a look on MFJ site and
i read on the description:
"Full size halfwave on 2/6 Meters."
Ah right, someone here in Italy forget to specify *where* is 1/2 wl designed

But the funny thing is not what i tell until now... the funny (or sadly)
thing is that 7 local hams over 10, asking them if on 40 meters perform well
the MFJ 1796 or a common quarter wave antenna, reply "the 1796 for sure ! Is
a half wave designed antenna" someone adding also " you know antenna theory,
not ??"
Of the remaining 3 hams, 2 of this 3 replied with approximately my same
doubt ("what?? an half what ??")
A special mention to the last one that replied the dipole is the only
antenna that he consider. He said that vertical antenna is the best system
to deliver half or more applied power to the earth, no matter how is
designed. So he don't ever read the advice and don't reply to the original
question
...
Well, marketing and language misuse can add gain on an antenna, now i know
this

Sorry for my english, i hope that the sense of the story is clear to
readers.

73,
-.-. --.-

marketing language is worse than your english!

"K1TTT" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

marketing language is worse than your english!

Hmm .. then i guess is a total mess

-.-. --.-

"-.-. --.-" wrote in message
...
All begin reading the advice of a reseller on a Italian ham magazine, that
claim this (translated):

"The MFJ 1796 antenna only at XXX euro !!! 2,6,10,15,20,40 meters Superior
Half-Wave configuration !!"

Oh well, i'm really a rookie on antenna theory, but - thinking into
myself - someone at MFJ can please explain me what the hell make on this
antenna to shrink an half wave antenna on 40 meters into a stick shorter
than quarter wave??


It is easy to put anyting on paper. Antenna gain advertisement was so bad
that many years ago the ARRL would not let anyone put gain numbers in their
advertisements.
Most things made by MFJ are not very well thought of in the US.

On Jun 27, 4:51*pm, "Ralph Mowery" wrote:
"-.-. --.-" wrote in message

...

All begin reading the advice of a reseller on a Italian ham magazine, that
claim this (translated):

"The MFJ 1796 antenna only at XXX euro !!! 2,6,10,15,20,40 meters Superior
Half-Wave configuration !!"

Oh well, i'm really a rookie on antenna theory, but - thinking into
myself - someone at MFJ can please explain me what the hell make on this
antenna to shrink an half wave antenna on 40 meters into a stick shorter
than quarter wave??

It is easy to put anyting on paper. *Antenna gain advertisement was so bad
that many years ago the ARRL would not let anyone put gain numbers in their
advertisements.
Most things made by MFJ are not very well thought of in the US.

That's why it's referred to as "Mighty Fine Junk" remember the V31BB
Mighty Fine Junk network? Too damn funny.

On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:32:32 -0700 (PDT), BillyBobMarley
wrote:

On Jun 27, 4:51*pm, "Ralph Mowery" wrote:
"-.-. --.-" wrote in message

...

All begin reading the advice of a reseller on a Italian ham magazine, that
claim this (translated):

"The MFJ 1796 antenna only at XXX euro !!! 2,6,10,15,20,40 meters Superior
Half-Wave configuration !!"

Oh well, i'm really a rookie on antenna theory, but - thinking into
myself - someone at MFJ can please explain me what the hell make on this
antenna to shrink an half wave antenna on 40 meters into a stick shorter
than quarter wave??

It is easy to put anyting on paper. *Antenna gain advertisement was so bad
that many years ago the ARRL would not let anyone put gain numbers in their
advertisements.
Most things made by MFJ are not very well thought of in the US.

That's why it's referred to as "Mighty Fine Junk" remember the V31BB
Mighty Fine Junk network? Too damn funny.

The MFJ products that I have purchased and use work well for me.
Judging from their popularity and growth, I am not the only one who
can make their products work.

John Ferrell W8CCW

The antenna is electrically a half wave on 10M to 40M, the electrical length of an element is not directly related to it's physical length. That is how they make a "halfwave" in a stick shorter than a physical quarter wave.

The line "full size halfwave on 2/6 meters" indicates that on those two bands the antenna is not loaded, but actually physically a halfwave antenna. The manual indicates that as initially built to dimension, before adjustment, the antenna is centered on 51 MHz on 6M, and 146 MHz on 2M, so my assumption s it is acutally a halfwave on those two freqs.

"Token" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

The antenna is electrically a half wave on 10M to 40M, the electrical
length of an element is not directly related to it's physical length.
That is how they make a "halfwave" in a stick shorter than a physical
quarter wave.

Ok... could you please explain me how i can build an, e.g., electrical half
wave for the 20 meters in a 3 meters stick ??

I repeat, i'm a great newbie on antenna theory and related arguments, so the
question i pose to you now is not ironic but really posted to increase my
knowledge, if is possible.

Thanks in advance also to other people that may contribute to this question.

-.-. --.-

-.-. --.- wrote:
"Token" ha scritto nel messaggio
...

The antenna is electrically a half wave on 10M to 40M, the electrical
length of an element is not directly related to it's physical length.
That is how they make a "halfwave" in a stick shorter than a physical
quarter wave.

Ok... could you please explain me how i can build an, e.g., electrical half
wave for the 20 meters in a 3 meters stick ??

I repeat, i'm a great newbie on antenna theory and related arguments, so the
question i pose to you now is not ironic but really posted to increase my
knowledge, if is possible.

Thanks in advance also to other people that may contribute to this question.

-.-. --.-

"Electrical half wave" doesn't have much meaning when applied to an
antenna, so there isn't a good answer to your question. There's no way
to make a short dipole behave exactly like a half wavelength dipole in
all respects. But if you mean you want to make a short antenna resonant
(one of the properties of a physically nearly half wavelength dipole),
you can make it or an antenna of any physical size or shape resonant by
putting an impedance transforming (matching) network at the feedpoint.
Presto, a resonant antenna. If you want the same feedpoint resistance at
resonance as a physical half wavelength antenna, you can get that too by
adjusting the network component values. The pattern of a dipole of any
length shorter than a half wavelength will in practice be
indistinguishable from that of a half wavelength dipole. What will
happen is that you'll have increased loss due to the larger currents and
voltages in the shorter antenna and the matching network, the amount
depending on the design. And if the losses are kept reasonable, the
bandwidth of the shorter antenna will be narrower than the bandwidth of
a half wavelength antenna.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

The antenna is electrically a half wave on 10M to 40M, the electrical
length of an element is not directly related to it's physical length.
That is how they make a "halfwave" in a stick shorter than a physical
quarter wave.

Ok... could you please explain me how i can build an, e.g., electrical half
wave for the 20 meters in a 3 meters stick ??

I repeat, i'm a great newbie on antenna theory and related arguments, so the
question i pose to you now is not ironic but really posted to increase my
knowledge, if is possible.

The short explanation is "reactive loading".

The simplest way to achieve what you're looking for, is to take a
three-meter stick, and wind it with a spiral of wire. The wire should
be insulated, to prevent adjacent turns from shorting together. You
would feed the antenna in the center, just as if it were a full-sized
half-wave dipole.

The exact number of turns required (and thus the total length of the
wire you'd need) can probably be calculated, but I lack the detailed
information to know just what the calcs are. I'm sure that there are
examples shown on the Web, and/or in the ARRL Antenna Compendium
books. You can see one example of this approach at

http://www.w0ch.net/travel_antenna/travant.htm

There are a bunch of design alternatives, divided roughly into

(1) Wind the wire evenly along the whole length of each half of the
shortened dipole.

(2) Run the wire straight along the pole for part of the way from the
center to the end, and wind turns over the rest.

The "travel antenna" is of the latter sort - it puts most of the added
inductance (the coiled turns) down near the feedpoint. He designed it
as a shortened quarter-wave, but you could take two of these and
stick them back-to-back and have a shortened half-wave.

If you measure the resonant frequency of this shortened half-wave and
find that it resonates at too low a frequency, then you've got too
many turns... remove some and run the wire straight along a portion of
the pole (or space all of the turns further apart). If it resonates
at too high a frequency, you need more turns (more inductance).

The behavior of this sort of shortened dipole will be similar to that
of a full-length dipole, with several differences:

- Slightly less directional gain

- Higher electrical losses in the dipole

- Lower radiation resistance

The latter two factors result in a loss of electrical efficiency...
more of your transmitter power turns into heat in the antenna itself,
and less is radiated.

The feedpoint impedance is likely to be different than a full-sized
half-wave, too... it may be lower (due to the lower radiation
resistance) or higher (due to the additional loss resistance) or
nearly the same (if these two factors cancel out).

The approach I've described uses inductive loading - you add
inductance in series with the antenna in order to resonate it.
Another approach is capacitive loading - you add additional capacitive
coupling at the ends of the antenna. This can be done by adding a
circular metal "hat" at each end, or a set of radial wires sticking
out at a 90-degree angle.

The MFJ antenna under discussion actually uses both techniques - it
has an inductive loading coil, and a "capacity hat" of wire spokes, at
each end of the antenna (actually, one per band that it's supposed to
tune). The combination of added inductance, and added capacitive
loading, creates the necessary resonance on each band.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
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