[SMCARA] Playing with Wires

[Tom Shelton]

I spotted this antenna a few months ago and have been wanting to try it.  Finally got it up in the air today...

http://www.hamuniverse.com/kl7jrslopingdelta806.html

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): This would be a good (not great) antenna for someone who wants a cheap, quick and dirty, antenna.

All you need is about 136 of wire and a way to connect your 50-ohm coax to the delta.  This from MFJ would work nicely: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-16G01

It was a temporary install for now, but with a little tweaking it could be a great alternative for someone looking for more than one band...  One caveat, just as the article states, you really need a tuner.  

On 75/80 meters I was unable to tune the very bottom of the band, but it tuned up quickly 3.6 to 4.0 MHz.  Without the tuner it showed between 4.5:1 and 3.1.
On 40, 30, 20 and 17 Meters, it was 3:1 across the bands (untuned), but tuned throughout.  I was able to work Portugal on PSK63 with no problem.
On 15 Meters the untuned VSWR was from 3:1 on the low end and 2:1 on the upper end.  Still, with a tuner it worked well.  I was also able work Cuba on PSK31.
On 12 and 10 Meters, the untuned VSWRs ranged from 1.7:1 to 3:1.
The best band was 6 Meters with had worst case untuned VSWR of 1.7:1.

I checked out a couple of CW signal and compared them to my GAP Challenger.  The Delta seemed to be about 2 S-Units below the GAP.

The design says that you don’t need a balun, but I ran this off my BUGLY balun.

Tom Shelton, AB3IC
(240) 434-3811

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