[Antennas] My B&W Folded Dipole

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 23:48:45 -0400 (EDT)

 A fair characterization of the antenna and some valid reasons to consider its purchase.  

Ron W7MRR

 --- On Mon 07/22, Mike, K8LH  wrote:
From: Mike, K8LH [mailto: [email protected]]
To: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 13:42:43 -0400
Subject: [Antennas] My B&W Folded Dipole

> 
> My 2 cents worth please Gentlemen???
> 
> I've been using a B&W Folded Dipole for four years now as my main
> (only)
> antenna and I agree with the theory and most comments that the B&W
> Folded Dipole is NOT a "great" antenna...
>  
> I purchased the B&W because it would on my city-size lot, would give
> me
> access to all of the HF bands, would provide a 2:1 or better SWR across
> the entire HF spectrum without a tuner, and had a rating of 1,000 watts
> ICAS which allowed for operation with a small 500-600 watt amplifer,
> also without a tuner...
> 
> I've learned these last several years that many other wire antennas, or
> ladder-line fed wire antennas, along with a tuner, are much better
> performing antennas...
> 
> I think the B&W deserves its place as a simple and reasonably
> inexpensive all-band no-tune "compromise" antenna system
> though...  Yes,
> you lose several db on receive and transmit because of the "matching
> network" (terminator)...  Yes, its performance drops off dramatically
> on
> 80m and below...  But while the antenna doesn't work as well as many
> other designs, it DOES work...  Here's a few of the things I've done
> with my B&W along with an FT-847 transceiver and SB-201 amplifier;
> 
> 5BWAS (8 months), WAS-CW, WAS-SSB, WAS-QRP, WAS-30, WAS-17...  Now
> working on WAS-RTTY (still need VT and NV) and WAS-12...
> 
> 308 DXCC entities worked (these last 39 months) with 302
> "firm"... 
> DXCC-CW, DXCC-SSB, and working on DXCC-RTTY...  Mixed band totals are;
> 61 on 80m (yuch), 210 on 40m, 185 on 30m, 238 on 20m, 241 on 17m, 245 on
> 15m, 179 on 12m, and 234 on 10m (no I'm not retired, I work full-time,
> hi)...
> 
> WAZ-CW (6 months), WAZ-SSB, WAZ-15...
> 
> All-in-all, I think the B&W was a good investment and a good
> "match" for
> my needs as a first antenna...  But I'm also looking forward to getting
> the 48 foot Rohn HDBX-48 tower up in the air next month with the
> Lightning Bolt 2-element 5-band Quad on top...  I've been saving my
> pennies for four years now so I'm pretty "geeked"...  Please
> wish me
> luck Gentlemen...
> - - - 
> 
> Your moderator for this list is:
> Larry Wilson KE1HZ [email protected]
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> 

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