A Stealthy,
Lightweight, 100 Watt 80 thru 6 Meters Multi-band Dipole for Home,
Portable and Base Station Operations.
Simple,
Elegant, High Quality For Less.
This
antenna is the result of amateur radio lessons learned, one of which is - if you can
put up a dipole, you should.
Multi-band antennas can be a great convenience at times. For those occasions,
we now offer a multi-band dipole that covers 80 Meters in a compact, durable
form with exceptional performance at a reasonable price. Check out our
antennas in action on YouTube, simply search "N9SAB Antenna" for some excellent
Ham Radio content by such providers as Ham radio Concepts and Outdoors on the
Air.
There is an Ultralight QRP version of this antenna available here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/164317643671
and don't forget to visit the store here: https://www.ebay.com/str/n9sab
People familiar with our antennas already know that compact, light, effective performance means a dipole, to us. The difference here is that we now offer all the highly portable characteristics of our regular antennas in a multi-band off-center fed dipole now for 80 through 6 meters. This is the very same antenna I use for my home QTH.
This
antenna requires a tuner.
Fortunately,
there are many compact, portable tuners available and many newer radios include
an auto-tuner. If you are equipped this way, then our OCF Dipole is for you.
Our antennas are solidly built, rugged and designed to be a high-performance value
alternative to much more expensive equipment. Don't take our word for
it, please check our feedback as a seller.
The
antenna is an 80 Meter half-wave dipole fed 1/3 of distance from the end. This
raises the feed-point impedance to approximately 200 ohms. To compensate, the
antenna is equipped with a 4:1 Ruthroff -style voltage balun (impedance
matching transformer) embedded between the UHF female connector and the 18 AWG
UL1007 elements (See schematic with photos). The transformer uses one (1) FT140-43
ferrite toroid. The result is a highly functional OCF dipole for use on 80
through 6 meters.
Using
a Yaesu FT-450D as a transmitter and auto tuner, our OCF Dipole tunes between
1.1 to 1.5 SWR on all bands 3.5.000 to 54.000 MHz. There is a band by band SWR
readout in the photo section showing values without a tuner. If your tuner can compensate less than 8:1 SWR (most do better) then you will be
able to effectively transmit on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 and 6 meters.
Perfect for outdoor or stealth operation. Perfect for a base station antenna.
It's also a great, inexpensive gift to give to those involved with amateur
radio that requires no additional finishing.
It fits easily into a pocket, glove
box, bag or carrying case.
Many experienced hams would agree
that it is very easy to erect an antenna system inferior to a dipole, and very
difficult to out-perform one. There are no short-cuts or electronic tricks
involved here. The balun design and schematics are straight out of the Antenna
Handbook. All electrical connections are soldered using silver bearing
rosin-core solder. Parts and connections have been weather proofed using
marine-grade, adhesive-lined double walled polyolefin shrink tubing.
The 80 Meter OCFD weighs under 20oz. (566 grams) and fits into a space 9" x 3" x 3" (229 x 77 x 77mm)
when folded. Extended, the dipole is cut for the 80 meter band with one element approximately 47 feet in length, the other approximately 83 feet. It can be
used in any of the standard dipole configurations, flat-top, inverted V,
sloper, vertical dipole, wire vertical w/counterpoise, etc. but the patterns
achieved through different configurations are not the same as with a
classic half-wave dipole in a standard configuration.