[Antennas] RE: J POLE QUESTION

[GoJolly]

Hi Listmates

Just read the post about J Poles by ED YEARY W4TEY.

My two cents worth.

About 3 or 4 years ago I bought a very nicely made J Pole antenna made with
copper 1/2 inch plumbing pipe and caps etc from a local ham.  Later I
became curious about gain.  So I wrote to ARRL Lab and asked about J Poles.

Basically without exactly quoting or dragging out the e mails which I have
saved somewhere here is what they said:

If the J Pole is fed with coax as is the current style it will exhibit a
definite pattern because it is unbalanced.  The right way to feed a J Pole
is with 300 ohm line and a balun.  And, as to gain, the figures ARRL Lab
sent me show that the J Pole is almost exactly equal to a simple 1/4 wave
ground plane.

So much for all the myths about J Poles :-)

Bill K6ERQ