Broad Band Terminated Dipoles (BBTD), Tilted Terminated Fold Dipoles (T2FD) and Balanced Termination Folded Dipole BTFD) antennas can be designed to cover a large range of frequencies between 1.8 30 MHz. Longer length antennas generally provide better low frequency efficiency but take up a larger footprint of land. One BBTD that has worked well at the AK6R antenna farm is shown below. Many other designs are available and can be found at www.HFLINK.COM as well as other internet sites. Your mileage may vary using this antenna, but as a general coverage antenna for ham and shortwave broadcast, the simplicity can’t be beat even though an individual dipole on a specific band may out perform this broad band dipole. Palomar Engineers has all the parts you need to build this antenna, so why not give it a try?
Depending on the source of the antenna design, different value baluns are specified. Our Bullet(TM) baluns in ratios of 9:1, 12:1 and 16:1 are excellent for this type of antenna as they are broadband from 1.8-61 MHz and will take up to 500 watts PEP.
The Bullet-4B-500 and SBullet-4B-1500 are multi-core core baluns with a compact enclosure (looks like a bullet) enclosure that is physically lightweight but electrically robust and easy to transport for your portable loop antenna solution or permanent installation. Halyard hoist at top of balun for convenient attachment point. Input is via SO-239 coax connector and output with side eye bolt output. Choose your model rated 500 or 1500 Watts PEP from 1.8-61 MHz.
This transformer requires a feed line choke (see related products) to isolate the coax feed line from the antenna. A coax noise filter at the radio end of the coax is also recommended for best results.
Vertical Delta Loops
Multi-band vertical delta loops can be oriented several way but the most popular is to have the “pointy” end at the top (usually a single support) and the lower horizontal ends just out of reach of humans and animals. Best feed point at the top for multi-band use with a 4;1 balun. CUt total wire length to 1005/F (MHz) where F is lowest band frequency of use..
Single band vertical delta loops are best fed 1/4 wavelength (246/f(MHz)) from the top point down one side. Vertical delta loops use the same 2:1 baluns as the horizontal loops.
NOTE: We rate our Bullet baluns (and ununs) VERY conservatively at 500 watts PEP with a 50% duty cycle. Some manufacturers selling low cost baluns may use a 5% duty cycle for their PEP rating to make it appear you get a higher rated balun for a lower price, but you may in fact be getting be getting less. Their 1500 watts PEP really means 75 watts continuous or 150 watts at a 50% duty cycle compared to our 250 watts at 50% duty cycle. Our baluns typically cover a larger frequency range under 2:1 SWR which make your transceiver happy and probably will last longer with less electrical stress.
Remember we over engineer our products, to out perform our competition - just compare the weight of our baluns to theirs and you will know we put much more into our products so you don't have to worry about failure at a critical moment.
Likewise Termination Resistor values vary from 500-1250 ohms and we have a good selection shown HERE: