[Elecraft] Long wire antennas MORE

[David Gilbert]

You are both perpetuating the confusion here by pretending that these 
are two different forms of antenna.

Of course the "counterpoise" will radiate.  It will radiate energy 
proportional to the current in it, and the longer its length the higher 
the current will be.  That's EXACTLY the same case as for an off-center 
fed antenna ... they are the same thing.  If you drop the end of an 
off-center fed dipole too close to the ground it will waste energy in 
the form of ground losses as well.

Calling it a counterpoise is a misnomer.

Dave   AB7E



On 1/13/2018 9:41 AM, K9MA wrote:
> On 1/13/2018 07:44, Don Wilhelm wrote:
>> All information I have seen says that the counterpoise needed for an 
>> EFHW is 0.05 wavelength - at 40 meters, that is about 3.5 feet.
>>
>> If you make it longer than that, it becomes an offset center fed 
>> antenna, longer than a halfwave, in other words, it is a random 
>> length wire.  Both the half wavelength wire and the counterpoise wire 
>> will radiate. 
>
> True, and the longer the counterpoise, the more it will radiate, right 
> into the ground if it's just lying on the ground, so there's really no 
> point in a longer counterpoise for the EFHW.
>
> One extreme case is the center-fed full wave, or "two half waves in 
> phase".  It has the high feedpoint impedance of the EFHW (actually 
> about double) and has a pattern much like a dipole, but sharper.  It 
> has a couple dB of gain over a dipole broadside but, of course, less 
> gain in other directions.
>
> 73,
>
> Scott K9MA
>