Buck K4IA casts aspersions on the OCF Dipole by saying that it "Is inherently unbalanced"; but although the antenna is geometrically asymmetric, it is not inherently unbalanced as far as the feeding is concerned. See W8JI paper on the subject which shows that the standing wave pattern across the dipole OCF antenna is exactly the same as a center-fed version. The main thing that changes is the feed impedance.
Having said that, I have responded to all who suggest that common-mode currents on my feeder could be my problem by making myself what is often referred to as the finest and most versatile common mode choke balun, as described by GM3SEK. Yesterday I completed it and installed it just South of my 4:1 Balun under the antenna feed point (I made the mid band version, and used all the right Ferrites and winding arrangements). I really believed this would fix my problem (which mainly affected 40-14m), but it didn't unfortunately. If anything, my problem seemed worse. My next step will be to move it from the feedpoint to the shack entry, because I am worried that since replacing and re-routing my coax feeder I may have exposed it to closer coupling to the antenna (it's now more parallel and unburied). I hope Reflector readers are not getting too bored with my problems and attempts to overcome them. I am still driven by the 10 months I had using my OCF and Elecraft rig on all bands from 80-6meters and working lots of DX! Ray Coles, C.Eng. M0XDL 10 Littlemoor Road, Weymouth DT3 6AA Tel: +44 (0) 1305 833699 Mob: 07831 516517 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
