Ham Radio - The Doublet antenna, QSOs and observations.

I’m not sure I would refer to it as pattern “distortion”, but the modeled azimuth pattens do get weird at the higher bands, with peaks and nulls fairly close together. I have a 125’ doublet oriented 345 N and on my to do list is a 65’ doublet perpendicular to it to give better N/S performance on 40 and perhaps fill in those nulls.

 

My 51' folded window line fed doublet attic antenna has about the last 8' or so turned at 45 degrees to follow a rafter down from the peak on each end. I don't see a 51' doublet design itself as much a compromise as my having it in the ATTIC! That said... if I can hear them I can usually work them. Numerous long distant contacts so far include Australia and Russia on FT8 with -10 to -16 reported.

I'm running a Kenwood TS-480HX at 200 watts, normally turned down to 100 on CW and 50 or less on the digital modes.