Mike Coslo wrote:
I'm using a homebrew dipole at the moment. It is a fairly typical
one,
with coax going to a 4:1 balun. Short side 40 some feet, and ~135
feet
total. Roughly What I am curious about is that 80 meter operation is
pretty good, 40 meters is good also, but on 20 meters it, for lack of
a
better word, sucks.

Is the OCF multi-band antenna a dog on 20 meters?

I ran into the same problem at the N2EY/W3RV Field Day site. The NW/SE
80M G5RV cooked on 80 & 40 but it wasn't so hot on 20/15 I assumed
because of the "lobes to nowhere useful" problem discussed above. So I
built conventional coax-fed 20 & 15M dipoles strung end-to-end and
installed them parallel with but lower than the G5RV from another pair
of trees. From here near the NE coast we now have major lobes aimed
southwestward on all four bands which seem to cover the whole country
and Canada quite well except directly off their ends. I suspect part of
the success of the 20/15M dipoles vs. the G5RV is attributable to lower
tuner losses, we don't need a tuner for 20 & 15.
- Mike KB3EIA -

w3rv