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 PAL-OCF4010 covers 40-30-20-17-15-12-10 and 6 meters in a length of 66 feet. In most cases, no antenna tuner is needed and switching bands is as easy as changing the band on the radio. Super convenient and quick – great for contest operation! Choose 500, 1500 or 5000 watts PEP power levels.
Uses hybrid balun containing wide band 4:1 transformer + 1:1 common mode feed line choke to keep all your power on the antenna and off the feed line coax outer conductor!
Unlike Buckmaster OCF antennas (at twice the price, and no WARC band or 15 Meter operation), you can transmit and receive on 6, 12, 15 and 17 meters with our OCF - Better engineering and lower price - only from Palomar Engineers!
Also much quieter than end fed antennas!
INSTALLATION
For best results support balun at 30+ feet and ends over 15 feet. Angle of feed each side must be great than 45 degrees or 120 – 180 degrees total between each side preferred. Any length of 50 ohm feed line ok but longer feed lines over 50 feet may show reduced SWR on some bands due to losses in feed line and soil conductivity, nearby objects, etc. Due to local ground conditions, antenna height and feed line length, SWR may vary from samples shown and an internal or external antenna tuner may be required or some bands to bring SWR at end of feed line to acceptable levels. Overall length is 66 feet (11 feet and 55 feet sides).
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NEED and END FED antenna covering the same bands and only requiring two supports rather than three? Check out the BULLET-4006
Likewise Termination Resistor values vary from 500-1250 ohms and we have a good selection shown HERE: