Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Single 5/8 Flower Pot Antenna


The Single 5/8 version of the Flower Pot simply substitutes a 5/8 wave-length section for the top quarter wave of the basic half wave antenna design. The arrangement is shown in the sketch below. The 5/8λ radiator uses a 0.2λ (shorted) co-ax phasing stub to resonate the 5/8λ element. In a conventional 5/8λ mobile whip, an inductor is used to bring the 5/8λ element to resonance; however, in this Flower Pot style of antenna, using a co-ax phasing (or delay) stub suits the construction technique and has the advantage of being able to be precisely determined and cut at the construction stage.

The antenna configuration is similar to, but slightly shorter than, the “Gain Sleeve” antenna described in the RSGB Hand-book (6th Edition – figure 13.99, which itself is derived from the reactance – or shunt – fed 5/8λ monopole antenna at figure 13.84 of the handbook).
The Gain Sleeve antenna achieves an effective radiating element length of one wavelength and, since the aperture is twice that of a half wave dipole, a theoretical gain of 3dBd (gain over a dipole) could be achieved.

However, note that the Handbook indicates that in practice, the Gain Sleeve antenna would realise about 2.5dBd. The effective radiating element length of the Single 5/8 Flower Pot is 7/8λ suggesting it would have somewhat less than 2.5dBd gain.

2m Construction

2m Single 5/8 Flower Pot

No comments:

Post a Comment