Building a W3DZZ aerial.

[GM4ULS]

Anyone got any tips (materials, construction, etc) about building one?

Regards,

Paul.

[Les GW8PSJ]

Hi Paul

In case you have not seen this YouTube film about making the W3DZZ trapped dipole have a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP1MtiJmXy4

Is this what you were looking for (more DRINK)?

[IZ0JUB]

The video is very professionally made and the aerial parts look very high quality and this comes at a price. According to the designer without a tuner the aerial is limited to only two bands 40M and 20M. However using an ATU it is also possible to use 15M and 10M.

It would be easier and less expensive to put up a home brew 40M half wave dipole which would work OK on 15M and use an ATU for the other bands.

73's de Mike

[Les GW8PSJ]

Yes, it is costly because of the commercial traps.

I don't know how long you garden is but I put up a simple 84ft long doublet (all I could fit in the space) with 300 ohm ladder line down into a 4:1 balun in the shack. From there it goes through a 6ft long piece of RG58 cable to my ATU.

I can tune across 3.5MHz to 30MHz but as I use only the 80m / 40m / 20m / 17m bands this is a very cheap aerial.

[GM4ULS]

Thank you to the colleagues who posted to this topic.

(By the way, yes I have a very small plot, hence the doublet to the suggested dimensions is a non-starter)

Paul.

[G3TXQ]

By the way, yes I have a very small plot, hence the doublet to the suggested dimensions is a non-starter
Paul.

Paul,

I'm confused - nothing new! You said you don't have room for an 84ft doublet, but you are enquiring about a W3DZZ which is normally about 106ft long. Perhaps I missed something?

Anything longer than 100ft and fed with ladderline through a 1:1 Current Balun and a wide-range tuner will work well on all bands 80m thru 10m.

73,
Steve G3TXQ

[Les GW8PSJ]

Hi Paul

Yes, I had missed that one also, good point though.

[GM4ULS]

By the way, yes I have a very small plot, hence the doublet to the suggested dimensions is a non-starter
Paul.

Paul,

I'm confused - nothing new! You said you don't have room for an 84ft doublet, but you are enquiring about a W3DZZ which is normally about 106ft long. Perhaps I missed something?

Anything longer than 100ft and fed with ladderline through a 1:1 Current Balun and a wide-range tuner will work well on all bands 80m thru 10m.

73,
Steve G3TXQ

Now I am confused too! The lengths I was quoted were much shorter than than. Perhaps I was badly misinformed.

All is not lost, however, because I do have room for a 40m inverted V. The fact that my support is metal would seem to rule out anything fed by ladder line. But I am always open to suggestions.

P

[G3TXQ]

Paul,

You only need to keep the ladderline a couple of inches away from the metal mast for it to work fine!

I would still recommend the doublet/ladderline/tuner option because:
* It will give you all bands 40m thru 10m
* Losses will be acceptable on all bands
* No "tweaking" of the doublet is required

But, good luck whichever solution you decide to try.

73,
Steve G3TXQ

[GM4ULS]

Steve, it would be 40 and 80 I'm trying to cover. The higher bands would be covered by a mini-beam.

40m on its own would do me - I'm probably not going to be too successful jamming something for 80m into the available space here. Also, I have been using an aerial fed by ladder line for the past three years, and suffer greatly from RF in the shack. That's one reason I'm looking to try something else; another is that I have tried similarly-fed antennas (before I moved house) with a metal support, and encountered all kinds of problems.

However, many thanks for the constructive advice. All gratefully received.