New 15/10/6 Fan Dipole

  Last antenna season I put a 15/10/6/2 Fan Dipole  at the top of the hill.   I was suspecting some losses in the 500' of mostly LDF4 but it seemed to work well but I seemed to always get signal reports that were 10 db less then what I was reporting..ie IFL loss.   

 I just cranked out a 15/10/6 Fan Dipole the same build more or less as the one on the top of the hill.   I have mounted it about half way up the hill with about a 300'shorter IFL.   This new antenna is pretty high at around 30ft maybe a wee bit higher above ground then the top of the hill.    As a test I did alternating CQs between the 2 Antennas using my two call signs.  I did this alternating between antennas every 90 seconds to 2 minutes over a 30 minute period.   Should be enough to take propagation out of the equation. 

VE3LDP the new fan is broadside 30 / 210 ( not quite running  NNE / SSW ) where IMI the old fan broadside is 0 /180 ( runs east west ) .   Not hugely significant!  

VE3LDP is the new Fan ( shorter IFL, 200' and lower on the hill ) 

EU

VA3IMI is the old Fan ( top of hill 500' IFL ) 

EU

 

Clearly there is an advantage to the fan at the top of the hill ,  a bit of a surprise to me I was expecting less loss so better TX not thinking the position on the hill would make that much of a difference. 

 Swept both fans on 15 m. 

VE3LDP is the new Fan ( shorter IFL, 200' and lower on the hill )

VA3IMI is the old Fan ( top of hill 500' IFL ) 

Return loss is an important number to look at in terms of the efficency of the antenna.  The way I thinks about return loss is .

If the return loss is 10 dB, 10% of the power is returned. While different systems have different acceptable return loss limits, 15 dB or better is a common system limit for a cable and antenna system.

Both antennas range from 19 to 28 db return loss the new one is slightly better but the are both very close to each other.   

Next up is to sweep both IFLs into load.