Blog
So it's been a long time since I've updated here, and I really should talk about the latest antenna. I started the write up a while ago, but can't find what I did with the file, so here goes starting the write up anew.
I finally gave up on the 2m/70cm quad. Never did get it to work on both bands at the same time, and it took up wayyy to much space. I've gone back to mono-band antennas. And to satisfy my 2m needs that I can easily transport, I decided to try a Yagi for ease of construction. I wanted to design a full band, high gain antenna. I chose to do a split boom design again, based on 6ft dowels that are available at Home Depot. But simulations were showing, I wouldn't be able to get the full band at that length with
Plans made, and simulations indicating that the detuned antenna would still have some good gain, I began by simulating a simple dipole, and building said dipole. I've had issues with my antennas always resonating low, and so I suspected that I had a systematic bias of some sort. The physical dimensions of an antenna depend on a lot of things, but one of them is the velocity of propogation of the conductor. This can vary for copper, but is in the neighborhood of .87-.95 (need to dig up the source again). And
Blog