G5RV/ZS6BKW Antennas

The ZS6BKW antenna is a better match for our bands than the G5RV. The method of construction and tuning  is essentially the same for both antennas but the dimensions are different.

Here is the ZS6BKW antenna installed at AK6R fine tuned for the CW/FT8 frequencies on 40-20-17-12-10 meters.  An excellent antenna when installed at 30 feet or higher and no tuner required avoiding the tuner losses and constant retuning.  If you want to work all bands from 80-10 install an antenna tuner between the 1:1 balun and the amplifier and ignore the 39/40 switch.

Is this the best FT8 antenna?  – I think so as I has made over 70,000 contacts and it still is a proven winner -Good world wide DX, easy to install, no tuner and takes full legal limit.

PAL ZS68006 Ant Layout - G5RV/ZS6BKW Antennas

 

Here are several different 1:1 baluns you can use depending on power requirements:

Antenna Rotor RFI Kit - fits all Wired Rotors up to 1/2" cable size

SKU RFI-Rotor
$39.95
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Antenna Rotor RFI Kit - fits all Wired Rotors up to 1/2" cable size
Product Details

Your rotor cable and control box can cause RFI into your radio station and you need to suppress common mode RFI induced into the cable from your antennas. In many cases the rotor cable acts as an unintended counterpoise for your rotated antennas and can cause weird SWR issues since the control cables become part of the antenna,

The SOLUTION is simple: isolate the cable from RFI by adding the Palomar RFI kit for antenna rotors. Add 3 snap on filters near the rotor and another 3 snap on filters at the rotor control box and a ring filter for AC powered rotor control boxes to suppress RFI common mode currents that can affect the antenna SWR and radiation patterns. In addition, these filters may also help reduce station receiver noise since many rotors are connected to the station ground and the rotor cable acts as an additional receiving antenna.

Isolating the rotor cable works on the same principal as isolating coax cable - keep the TRANSMIT signal on the antenna by proving a feed line choke at the rotor itself and keep noise out of the station on RECEIVE by choking the cable at the rotor control box ( by suppressing noise pickup on the cable).

Kit includes 7 filters -six 1/2" snap on filters for the cable and a ring filter for the AC/DC power supply for the control box. Simple to install and cheap insurance to solve both the TRANSMIT and RECEIVE issues caused by rotor control systems.


 

Here is the Coax Noise Filter used to suppress coax common mode currents (works for all type of antennas)

 

PDF of ZS6BKW at AK6R Construction Article HERE: My ZS6BKW Antenna