[Antennas] Length of Dipole

[Cletus W Whitaker]

de WB2CPN South Central Pennsylvania   2004.04.20

That's my favorite antenna for all-freq HF.
A half-wave at the lowest frequency is best for that
frequency, but the the familiar doughnut pattern degrades
as the frequency is increased to the other bands.  It's
all in the book.  A fair compromise is to let the half
wave be on a frequency which is logrithimic half way
between the lowest and the highest frequency you intend
to work.  The higher frequencies won't have a daisy
pattern so much, and the lower frequencies will be
doughnuts, but with slightly less efficiency.  The
160 meter band won't perform very well on an
antenna cut for 14 MHz.  Sometimes not very well
is enough for what you want.  (The problem with an
antenna which has a daisy pattern is that some reports
will be good, and some will be in a null and be not
so good, so you have to make up your own mind what
you have.)  Also, daisy patterns aren't just on the
horizontal plane, the vertical plane can give you
vertical angles that depend on frequency.  Good Luck.

73  Clete