[Antennas] Dipole and Balun

[Alan C. Zack]

Thanks for the info.  Looks like I will be using the center insulator
alone after all.  The B&W traps and center insulator come with round
lugs to fit the number 10 stranded copper ant wire B&W provide.  The
Van Gorden balun I planned to use has little tiny spade lugs good for
number 20-24 wire.  As I attempted to attach the #10 antenna wire to
the Van Gorden balun I broke the lug.  I then tried to solder the
antenna wire directly to the eyelet connection using a Weller 100w
gun.  I wound up loosening the eyelet from the plastic casing and am
now afraid it may pull away from the balun case in a wind, breaking
the electrical connection, resulting in no signal.  I put the antenna
together using the center insulator B&W supplied but will also use the
clamp on ferrites where the coax connects to the center insulator as
well as making a 10 turn, 6 inch diameter loop just below the center
insulator.  I assembled the antenna without the clamp on ferrites or
coax loop on the roof this weekend and adjusted the various lengths
for min SWR mid band on 10/15/20.  Hope it won't change much once I
put the antenna up in the air in the Philippines.  Hope I won't be too
near any metal (GI Sheet) roofs that are common there.
Thanks for all the good suggestions and help, hope to work you from DU
land. 


> "Alan C. Zack" wrote:
> >
> > I am packing for my trip to DU land for the CQWWDXCW and ARRL 10mtr
> > Contests.  I go every 2 or 3 years and take a TS-50 and R-7 vertical.
> > Not much of a contest station but I have fun and work some DX between
> > contests.  I operate from a 1 bedroom beach cottage and so don't have
> > much room for antennas.  This year I am taking a B&W AS-20 shortened
> > 10/15/20 mtr trap dipole that will just fit my situation.  This ant
> > comes with a plain center insulator.  I have a Van Gorden HI-Q 1:1
> > balun I was thinking of substituting for the center insulator.  I
> > called B&W and the person I talked to wasn't much help.  He just said
> > he didn't know if it would help or not but I may have to make
> > adjustments on the factory suggested length of the ant and spacing
> > between traps.  So anyone out there have any idea on how replacing the
> > regular center insulator with a 1:1 balun will affect the adjustments
> > of the antenna lengths.  The Filipino Rain Gods always wait until I am
> > putting up my antenna to start the rains, so I would like to get it
> > right the first or second time putting it up, rather than many tries.
> > I am not expecting a big signal from this, just thinking there may be
> > times the dipole may work better than the vertical.
> > TIA & 73, Alan, K6ACZ
> > --
> > __________________________________________________________________________
> >                                 Alan Zack
> >                          Amateur Radio Station K6ACZ
> >                       Anaheim, Southern California, USA
> >                    Home of the World Series Winners ANGELS
> >                 Quality Engineer, The Boeing Company, Retired
> >          Aviation Chief Warrant Officer, U.S. Coast Guard, Retired
> >                 U.S. Coast Guard, Always Ready, Always There
> >         Every hour, Every day, Around the Clock and Around the World
> >                               SEMPER PARATUS