Fan Dipole

 I have often said that a half wave dipole is a very good antenna and very hard to beat if it can be installed horizontally a half wave above ground. Horizontal antennas have the advantage over verticals in that the ground reflections usually provide an additional 6 dB of gain. The angle at which the gain peaks is simply a function of height above ground. At a half wave high the gain will peak near 30 degrees.

Multiple half-wave dipoles may be combined on one coax feed line to provide multi band use with no switching. 

This is what one of my fan dipoles looked like. This one was used to contact over 100 countries on each of the bands 40 through 10 meters over the period of one contest weekend. This antenna consists of a 40 meter dipole, 20 meter dipole and a 10 meter dipole. The 40 meter dipole is also used on 15 meters.








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