Why Won't My 80-Meter Dipole Cover the Whole Band? (#363)

Theme music is "Sour Tennessee Red," by John Deley and the 41 Players, courtesy YouTube Music Library.



Twitter: @dcasler

[greglawrencemusic]

Dave,
The 30 meter band is only 50KHz wide. (correction might be needed.)

[stridermtk]

I don't know if I've even seen that explanation laid out like that before.
Thank you very much for that!

[kennethherring]

I know that this video is several months old, but I happened upon it and it really opened my eyes to something new about this hobby which is truly helpful. Thanks Dave.

[Seahag-xxzp]

Thnks Dave! I’ve been scratching my eyeballs on this issue. My dipole is working great on 20 and 4O but not 80

[BobDarlington]

Cage dipoles for the win. I built a vertical Marconi T antenna for 160 that covers about half the band under 2:1 and all of 80 if you move a tap on the base loading coil.

[MRMY]

Great video Dave - that's why I use a DX Commander with an 80 m element - less than 2:1 across the whole band with no tuner needed. Better take-off angle for DX and all the other bands too.

[scottgilbert]

Thank you Dave. Your channel provides a year service to the ham community. There are basically two ways to deal with the 80 m bandwidth issue. One is the way you suggested, having a fan dipole or similar design to broaden out the bandwidth. The other us to invest in a remote autotuner and connect it at or near the feedpoint to tune out reactances and match the line as close as possible to keep the swr along the feed line close to 1:1. I have a lot of experience with the latter and find it most convenient.

[walk-tall-hikes]

Excellent video Dave. I was considering putting up an 80 meter Dipole for local rag chewing to compliment my vertical, you convinced me to put up a 40 meter Dipole instead, Thanks and 73!, Tom, K2BEW

[izzzzzz]

You could have a type of vertical capacitance hat to broaden the band. At each end of the dipole you could have thin pvc tube hanging down with a counterweight allowing a stainless whip to stick up into the air at each end.

[prestonshute]

And that’s why I have 40/80 Ultimax bazooka at 35 ft.
All of 40 and most of 80 with my IC7300 with my internal tuner. If I want the of 80 the other parts of 80 I turn on my MFJ939 external tuner.

Once again another super helpful video Dave
73
wd4dda

[ReedABAS]

Thanks Dave. Good Data. I need to get a 80 m wire up soon for the band.

[kevinkeppler]

To defend Alpha Delta (ref #263): I literally threw their monoband 40m dipole (DX40) into my trees at 30 ft up. When I swept it it looked exactly like West Mountain’s 40m curve. No adjustment needed. I could have bought the parts and cut it, but buying premade was definitely worth it.

[jeffallen]

Excellent video and very timely. Thank you.

[jdecar]

Good explanation, Dave! I learned something.

[AnthonyBecerra]

Hi Dave,
After about 400+ videos from you have finally stumped me.
I have no idea what the ratio between the band size and the median frequency is.
It's just a number to me. (With no meaning.)
Then again it might just be me.

If it wasn't for the "numbers", from the ratio of the two statistics, I would have completely
'understood' the video.

Could you do a deeper dive into this or am I at the point of my Ham Radio journey that I need to start reading Antenna Theory books? (Serious statement.)

Thanks for everything you contribute to the hobby.
Take Care and 73.

[reidlanham]

Love your shirt! I ran the race in 2000 but dropped before going over Handies Peak at around 30 miles.

[omni]

the Mosley TW-3X covers the whole 80 band. I am going to buy one soon.

[glenmartin]

Thank you. I like 80 M, so I guess I will live with the problem.

[dalekrohse]

Nice job on this explanation. Isn't the difference at 10 MHz (9:27 video time) 0.25 FOOT instead of 0.25 inch?

[wilcrockett]

Awesome explanation, thanks very much.