Ham Radio - An end fed half wave cage antenna. How much wider bandwidth does it provide?

KK9W, Don't bother trying to engage with Chip. He does this all the time, He's a pro troll.

 

He 3D printed these. You can find lightweight flat materials and drill the holes if you have no access to a printer.

 

I liked the video, interesting experiment. Antennas seem to be one of the last areas for Amateur experimentation..

 

Kevin--

Don't you have anything else to do besides call people names? Lighten up and contribute.

Go build something. Go suggest something. Get into ham radio.

Want a good path?

Find out what a CCD antenna is, and figure out how to hybridize it for zero sidelobes at wide bandwidth. Ask what would happen if the cage antenna elements were themselves CCD elements.

Experiment. Hey--you might have fun!

 

Way off topic but I have seen videos of people flying their drones from the top to the bottom of the Array W1YW is speaking of.
I like KA4DPO's Reply sounds great for 10 meters. And a local Ham here in Reno Uses a 40 meter CCD antenna with really good results.
I just might build myself a three wire CCD end fed half wave cage antenna

 

But it looks retro cool.

 

It looks pretty steam punk!

Yep. I agree

 

Isn't CCD already reserved for Charge Coupled Device ?

 

You think I made it up?

No.

 

When these antennas were popular in the 1920s, people were convinced that radiation was a function of the capacitance between the antenna and ground, and that the capacitor formed between the plates was the actual source of the radiation. This is in fact totally incorrect, but because of that belief there were a lot of similar high-capacitance designs. In fact, with many of the cage antennas, the single-wire feedline up the tower was the major source of radiation and the cage itself just acted like a big capacitive hat.

However, if you are looking for wide bandwidth and low frequencies, multiple paralleled wires could help you a lot. Consider also a dipole constructed with parallel elements to make it electrically wider.
--scott

 

Mein zentral gespeister Dipol für 80 m Käfigantenne

 

I found your video interesting.

It might be interesting to modify the design a bit so that the six wires were all slightly different lengths,
it seems like that would further increase the bandwidth.

 

It looks like Kevin proved his hypothesis. The bandwidth is increased. As to applications, folks interested in ALE might find this an alternative to the T2FD. Wonder how the cage responds to the high-current node being at the center of the antenna versus at the feedpoint... Folks with only a single high point/support might find some benefit.
Sal

 

to N7XCZ :
I like your beam design. Hard to identify exactly what you are doing.
Please describe it.
See attached pic. taken from your avatar image.



===
After 62 years of CW, my simple antenna is an End-Fed Very-Long-Wire,
with 11 odd quarter wavelengths on 20M, covers whole 20M CW.
Fed directly from 50 Ohm coax, SWR 1:1 on 20 M. .
With small tuner, it can load to 80 thru 10.
My design is dependent on having many
odd-quarter wavelengths available, and using a QRP tuner.
One Watt hit all Europe and all States.
===

 

Nicely done Kevin. I've enjoyed your antenna experiment videos.