OCF Dipole Antenna Construction
Rick Sagers (W7YC) and David McAnally (WD5M) have been working on an Offset Center Fed (OCF) Dipole antenna project the past few weeks. Some prototype models, including baluns, were constructed and tested by Rick earlier. David has been testing one of the recent 80M models Rick built for the past couple of months, with excellent results. Rick built an earlier version a couple of years ago for the Fort Worth National Weather Service office and WX5FWD radio operator team.
Several friends expressed interest in these, so we bought material for about eleven more antennas, two 160M versions, eight 80M versions and one 40M half size version. Although Rick had been constructing his own baluns, he found a local Balun Designs company in Denton, operated by Bob, KZ5R, who provides nearly identical models with great construction and service. David's brother Tim, KD5KTB, has taken the first antenna with him to Florida for vacation, and we hope to contact him on HF over the first week of August.
After David dropped Rick's antenna from about 30 feet up a tower, breaking a solder joint, Rick made a few design changes on his balun, and investigated adding potting compound. Rick's son suggested some compound material, which we mixed and installed on Bob's baluns July 30.
Here are a few pictures taken as we assemble ten antennas, as of July 30. After curing at higher temps in the attic for a couple of days, they will be ready to cut the wire to resonate or design length, install and test.
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| OCF Dipole |