An update on the “Shortened Dipole for Balconies” (Rambler, Jan 2022, Vol 64, Issue 5)

In a previous article in the January 2022 issue of the OVMRC Rambler I reported experimenting with a linearly-loaded induction dipole, shortened for use on a balcony. Since the length of this dipole is longer than my balcony allows, I bent this dipole into a "W" configuration.

Using this antenna, I participated in the IARU HF World Championship to assess the directivity, that is the antenna’s path of radiation. As my balcony faces to the south, I was not expecting trans-arctic signals to make it through my building.

As expected, I worked stations to the south as far as Chile and Argentina and was covering well the Caribbean, Central America and the USA. But I also had a pleasant surprise with large number of European stations that could be worked with this antenna configuration.

I was curious to find out if this antenna would work as well in an altered configuration. I set it up in an inverted "U" configuration but didn't encounter much success, probably due to the fact that the top portion of the inverted "U" was very close to the roof of the balcony.

As other configurations were also possible, I set my dipole in an "M" configuration for the CQ WorldWide CW contest (https://www.cqww.com/). While I don't spend much time on contests, it was a great opportunity to test this revised configuration with approximately 100 QSOs.

It was interesting to find out that this "M" configuration was performing about the same way as the "W" configuration. Here, again, the signals from Europe were abundant, as well as the stations to the south. My furthest contact was 13,083 kilometers away in South Africa.

In the CQ WW CW contest, we look for "zone" worked and countries for multipliers. There are 40 CQ Zones. In the short time I operated the contest, I manage to list 13 of them which gave me 89 multipliers for a total of 25K points.

Thanks to Joe VE3EUS for the graph belowEurope- which shows the zones I worked and the QSOs in each of them, providing an indication of directivity of the “M” antenna configuration.

So, even though you may be confined to an apartment with a balcony, you don't necessarily have to give up on the fun of HF. You can find an appropriate configuration that works for you, possibly including what I call the "Mo's bent dipole".

73, de VE3VIG

By: Maurice-André VE3VIG

Appears in: Rambler Vol. 65, Issue 4 December 2022