Off Center Fed Dipole Antenna, 80-6 Meters (8 bands-including 15 meters), 500/1.5KW/5KW PEP rated - FREE shipping in USAProduct DetailsBrand: Palomar EngineersFrequency Band(s): 80-6Country/Region of Manufacture: USAFreq Range (MHz):: 3.5-54 MhzPower (PEP watts):: 500/1500/5000Length (ft):: 135 (95 + 40)Excellent features:
*** Covers 80-40-20-17-15-12-10-6 meter ham bands
*** SWR < 2:1 on most bands, may require antenna tuner 80, 40 for full band use
*** 500 watts/1.5KW/5KW PEP (SSB-ICAS) options
*** Stainless Steel hardware for long life
*** Halyard Hoist for ease of installation
*** Insulated #14 wire for durability
*** High Strength insulators (may be black, white or gray)
*** 4:1 Balun and 1:1 Choke included in a single enclosure
Super convenient and quick – great for contest operation! Choose 500, 1500 or 5000 watt PEP (use 5KW model for digital modes over 1000 watts).
Unlike Buckmaster OCF antennas (at twice the price, and no WARC bands, 6 meter or 15 Meter operation, you can transmit and receive on 12,15 and 17 meters with our OCF - Better engineering and lower price - only from Palomar Engineers!
INSTALLATION
For best results support center 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 antenna tuner may be required or some bands to bring SWR at end of feed line to acceptable levels. Overall length is 95+40 =135 feet.
FREE Shipping on orders over $100
Insulators may be black, grey or white depending on stock at hand when order is placed. Wire is stranded, insulated and black color.
5KW antennas are made to order and take approximately 10 days after order to ship.
SWR TECH NOTE:The SWR graphs shown are specific to the conditions listed including antenna height, configuration (flat top, inverted V, inverted L, etc.) and direction, feed line length and type, geographic location and soil condition, calibration and accuracy of SWR instruments used. Your SWR measurements will probably be different and manufacturer takes no responsibility or liability for these differences beyond the purchase price of the antenna.
Note if you like the band coverage of this antenna but don't quite have 135 feet available, then consider the BULLET-8006 with very similar band coverage but only needs 95 feet of wire that is end fed.
Testimonial:
N4JDU THIS IS MY 4TH PURCHASE FROM PALOMAR. ANTENNAS WORK GREAT!
Chris Miller – Facebook 2/20/22
A tale of two very different antennas, and two very different companies... I started with the MyAntennas 75-10 strung across the top of a 15 foot hedge around my property, based on the company's claim on their website "Due to the High Impedance feed point, the antenna is less height-dependent. You can put it up at 10 or 50 feet in the air without much change in VSWR values."... Being new to the hobby and not getting the advertised SWR in this configuration, I reached out for help on the company's Facebook group... The owner berated me for not understanding how antennas work. I simply reminded him of the company's claim on their site. He would not reply to my emails, and kicked me out of the group... Fortunately there were a number of much more friendly and helpful people in that group that helped me to understand that height really does matter, despite the company's claim... So I used my drone to get the wire to the top of a tall palm tree on my property, and get very respectable performance out of the antenna... But being new, excited and curious, striving for knowledge and experience in the hobby, I wanted to see how the EFHW would compare to a similarly placed OCF... Palomar Engineers has multiple models that peaked my interest, so I reached out to the company to find out which model/configuration would work best. The owner of the company, Bob (AK6R) personally called me, asked questions about my location and my station, talked me through options, and explained to me the history and development of his "80-10 vertical radiator" model. This was the antenna he suggested based on the spacing and arrangement of palm trees at the QTH. Bob's willingness to share his knowledge and assistance was true to the spirit I have come to enjoy in this hobby... So over the weekend I contracted a tree service company to deploy the Palomar OCF just below the EFHW (You can see the ends of the two wires in the first photo, the EFHW terminating 5 or 6 feet above the OCF)... Performance is very similar where it counts as you can see from the SWR chart.... what's remarkable about the OCF is my noise floor drops 1 to 2 S units, which is huge for me, living in an urban environment where noise is obviously an issue... And of course the relatively flat SWR across the board, not just on points of resonance. I hope someone may find my experience between the two antenna types, or the two antenna companies, helpful. 73 KI6GEA
the ocf i purchased is the best working antenna i have ever had
wa6nrg john
NI5I: I was using a Buckmaster OCF, was given your 500 watt version second
hand, then bought your 1500 watt version from HRO last summer. I wanted
another. I love this antenna!
Excellent features:
*** Covers 80-40-20-17-15-12-10-6 meter ham bands
*** SWR < 2:1 on most bands, may require antenna tuner 80, 40 for full band use
*** 500 watts/1.5KW/5KW PEP (SSB-ICAS) options
*** Stainless Steel hardware for long life
*** Halyard Hoist for ease of installation
*** Insulated #14 wire for durability
*** High Strength insulators (may be black, white or gray)
*** 4:1 Balun and 1:1 Choke included in a single enclosure
Super convenient and quick – great for contest operation! Choose 500, 1500 or 5000 watt PEP (use 5KW model for digital modes over 1000 watts).
Unlike Buckmaster OCF antennas (at twice the price, and no WARC bands, 6 meter or 15 Meter operation, you can transmit and receive on 12,15 and 17 meters with our OCF - Better engineering and lower price - only from Palomar Engineers!
INSTALLATION
For best results support center 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 antenna tuner may be required or some bands to bring SWR at end of feed line to acceptable levels. Overall length is 95+40 =135 feet.
FREE Shipping on orders over $100
Insulators may be black, grey or white depending on stock at hand when order is placed. Wire is stranded, insulated and black color.
5KW antennas are made to order and take approximately 10 days after order to ship.
SWR TECH NOTE:The SWR graphs shown are specific to the conditions listed including antenna height, configuration (flat top, inverted V, inverted L, etc.) and direction, feed line length and type, geographic location and soil condition, calibration and accuracy of SWR instruments used. Your SWR measurements will probably be different and manufacturer takes no responsibility or liability for these differences beyond the purchase price of the antenna.
Note if you like the band coverage of this antenna but don't quite have 135 feet available, then consider the BULLET-8006 with very similar band coverage but only needs 95 feet of wire that is end fed.
Testimonial:
N4JDU THIS IS MY 4TH PURCHASE FROM PALOMAR. ANTENNAS WORK GREAT!
Chris Miller – Facebook 2/20/22
A tale of two very different antennas, and two very different companies... I started with the MyAntennas 75-10 strung across the top of a 15 foot hedge around my property, based on the company's claim on their website "Due to the High Impedance feed point, the antenna is less height-dependent. You can put it up at 10 or 50 feet in the air without much change in VSWR values."... Being new to the hobby and not getting the advertised SWR in this configuration, I reached out for help on the company's Facebook group... The owner berated me for not understanding how antennas work. I simply reminded him of the company's claim on their site. He would not reply to my emails, and kicked me out of the group... Fortunately there were a number of much more friendly and helpful people in that group that helped me to understand that height really does matter, despite the company's claim... So I used my drone to get the wire to the top of a tall palm tree on my property, and get very respectable performance out of the antenna... But being new, excited and curious, striving for knowledge and experience in the hobby, I wanted to see how the EFHW would compare to a similarly placed OCF... Palomar Engineers has multiple models that peaked my interest, so I reached out to the company to find out which model/configuration would work best. The owner of the company, Bob (AK6R) personally called me, asked questions about my location and my station, talked me through options, and explained to me the history and development of his "80-10 vertical radiator" model. This was the antenna he suggested based on the spacing and arrangement of palm trees at the QTH. Bob's willingness to share his knowledge and assistance was true to the spirit I have come to enjoy in this hobby... So over the weekend I contracted a tree service company to deploy the Palomar OCF just below the EFHW (You can see the ends of the two wires in the first photo, the EFHW terminating 5 or 6 feet above the OCF)... Performance is very similar where it counts as you can see from the SWR chart.... what's remarkable about the OCF is my noise floor drops 1 to 2 S units, which is huge for me, living in an urban environment where noise is obviously an issue... And of course the relatively flat SWR across the board, not just on points of resonance. I hope someone may find my experience between the two antenna types, or the two antenna companies, helpful. 73 KI6GEA
the ocf i purchased is the best working antenna i have ever had wa6nrg john NI5I: I was using a Buckmaster OCF, was given your 500 watt version second hand, then bought your 1500 watt version from HRO last summer. I wanted another. I love this antenna!
TECH NOTE: We also stock RFI kits to protect effected devices such as garage door openers, computers (laptops, desktops), dsl/cable routers, ethernet hubs and many more devices. If you run a high powered RF amplifier in your ham station also consider a linear amp RFI kit which will cut down RFI transmitted by your station. Remember there is always a “transmitter” and a “receiver” of RFI and the quest is to find and choke the “path” the RFI has selected – you need to add ferrites to both the transmitting side and the receiving side to eliminate RFI problems. The RFI-HTS kit only helps suppress RFI on the receiving side.
Typical RFI Problem/Solution:
Hello, I am Larry, a ham operator and I am having interference issues with my Direct TV system. My station is a FT450D through an Ameritron ALS-600. From the amp through a coax switch to choose between an OCF dipole or an Hustler 5BTV vertical. Any power over 100 watts and my DTV goes off the air and must completly reboot/format. Coax is RG-8. The DTV dish is pointed away from the dipole and separated by about 25'. DTV was totally useless! They suggested I not talk on the radio while she is watching TV! Please help me with a reasonable, cost effective soultion. (The wife gets really pissed when I shutdown the tv!) Thank you, Larry
Hi Larry,
Your RFI problem is quite common and is usually a sign of either a radiating coax feed line or reception of your radiated signal (source) by the Direct TV (the victim) through either the AC power lines acting as “antennas” for your ham signal or the coax braid of the satellite antenna acting as an antenna for your signal.
The solutions are straight forward:
1. To make sure your feed line is not radiating you need a feed line choke at each antenna feed point (also makes your antenna work better since it is not using the coax as part of the antenna). You can use our simple Kit 110 with 5 snap on chokes on each antenna for this purpose. Part # Kit 110 at $27.50 each – one for each antenna. These chokes will keep your feed line from radiating and coupling into your ac power lines. INFO HERE
2. The radiation from your antennas themselves may also be getting into the ac power lines and coax braid of the Direct TV antenna so you need to protect the victim receiver. Depending upon the sophistication of your direct TV setup (e.g. home theater, dvd, tape player, sub woofer speakers, etc), the path of the RFI may be coming thru the AC power lines of any connected device to the video including the video monitor itself! To help solve this problem we have a home theater RFI kit for up to 5 devices (you need a minimum of two – one for the Direct TV receiver(AC and coax input) and another for the video monitor AC power lines and HDMI or video input cable. Our kit part # is RFI-HTS. INFO HERE
These items should help reduce the RFI and let you operate on the air while your wife watches TV.
Bob Brehm, AK6R
Chief Engineer