Hello Gary - I wonder if I could impose on you and ask you how you built the harness for the folded dipoles. I recently built a 4 element two meter version, thinking I knew what I was doing, and found out that I had built a very nice beam antenna. This antenna has a tre- mendously sharp null at only one point and a fairly wide front end. Yes, it is on a tower with a rotor for some other beams below it. It is at least 6 feet from the bottom of it to the top of the other antennas. Fed with a sort length of RG214 into 7/8ths heliax. SWR is perfect. It seems to be a very good antenna. ( If you aren't in the null ) N�ATH / Dave
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:02 AM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] DB-411 ETC.. Being the CHEAP S.O.B. that I am, I was rather shocked at the price of the DB-411 and similar antennas when I got tired of replacing the old fiberglass types every year. These fiberglass colinear antennas were easily damaged by lightning and corona from the severe storms we get here in the summer months. SOOOO---- I home-built my own version of the DB-411. I made the elements out of 1/4-inch brass so I don't have to worry about a weap hole to drain water. The supporting element for the dipole is 1-inch aluminum square tube. The harness was built from RG- 11 coax. I first built a 4-element version and it worked very well. I later added four more elements thus making an 8-bay array. This antenna works great and has performed well beyond expectations. The SWR is 1:1 on the 440 band. My 440 repeater is located about 10-miles from our desired service area so a bit of a directional pattern was desired. This was not possible with the old fiberglass whips since they are an omni pattern only. With the dipole arrangement, we can focus our rf to the area we want to serve and not be wasting it in an undesired direction. The total cost was about $120-dollars for materials. Happy Hamming! Gary - W5GNB Yahoo! Groups Links Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
