[Elecraft] Slightly Unbalanced dipole?

[Frederick Dwight]

Over a decade ago I did some un scientific experiments to investigate this subject.  I set up a test transmitter a few hundred feet away from my rotary 40 meter dipole.  I took some field strength measurements with the dipole, then lengthened one half of the dipole perhaps 6 inches and shortened the other half by the same amount.  The field strength measurements were the same.  I believe I also did the same thing again with something like a one foot lengthening and one foot shortening, and once again no change in the signal strength.  I did not write down the SWR, but if my memory serves me correctly there was no significant change in that either.  I did have a good feed line choke which may have helped prevent adverse effects from this slightly unbalanced dipole.  This was not a scientific test so errors could have easily been something like a dB and also this was done in the near field which is not the best way to make measurements.  So I feel confident that an unbalanced condition of a few percent will probably not cause any measurable problems.
                Rick  KL7CW

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