The “Bullet” End Fed OCF Antenna Matcher - 100/500/1500 Watts PEP/Digital
The key to end fed OCF antenna success is the matching network interface between the wire antenna and the feed line choke on the coax. Palomar Engineers employs a dual port ferrite matching system that offers wide bandwidth (1.8-61 MHz), and a 100 watt PEP power rating.
The antenna can be used as a sloper, “L” with a vertical section and a longer horizontal section, or as a horizontal or sloper antenna between two trees or supports. Great antenna for portable operations like NPOTA, SOTA, Field Day, etc., or for permanent installations like installing in an attic, under the eaves of a house, along a fence, etc. This is a short, effective and easy-to-hide antenna which gives a good account of itself on -80-6 (95' wire), 40-6 (55' wire) or 20-6 (25' wire) meter bands.
We sell the Bullet-4U-100 separately so you can add you own wire type and length (see table of suggested lengths below) or you can purchase a complete antenna system including wire and end insulator. Remember you also need a feed line choke like the easy adjustable snap on SOFLC.
Use a good quality 50 ohm cable such as RG-8X or similar as that size allows multiple (5-6 recommended) turns thru the feed line choke. The Bullet-4U-100 matching unit is rated for 100 watts PEP for SSB and 100 watts for CW/FT8. If the matching unit becomes warm to the touch after transmitting at high power, reduce the power output or the internal matching unit may become damaged.
NOTE: We rate our Bullet baluns (and ununs) VERY conservatively with a 50% duty cycle as used with digital (FT8) modes. 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 products to theirs and you will know we put much more into our products so you don't have to worry about power saturation failure at a critical moment.
A simple ferrite ring filter on the DC power line can help suppress the RFI noise affecting the victim device or keep the DC power cord from acting as an antenna and radiating RFI into other victim devices. This kit is also useful on laptop computer supplies, routers, cable modems, wireless phone charges, etc.
Installation is quick and easy: Just wrap the DC power cord through the center of the ring filter as many times as you can and reinstall. For best results with long DC power lines, use one at the ring filter at the wall wart end (to prevent the wall wart power supply from using the DC line as an antenna) and another at the DC plug end (to prevent the electronics in the powered device from using the DC power cord as an antenna). Typical installation is shown below:
The filter suppresses RFI in from .1-100 MHz. Inside diameter is 3/4 inch/19 mm.
Since most households and office environments have multiple wall warts we offer the Wall Wart RFI Filter kit in bulk quantity packages.
Known RFI Generators include Roku/Sling-TV power adapter - Interference heard in the AM broadcast band and harmonics. Also many ethernet Cable/DSL modems, cell phone chargers, computer power adapters have the same issue: using the AC or DC side of the power supply as a radiating antenna. RFI solution is to use a linear power supply, change adapters or wall wart ferrite filters