Ape Answers 017: DOUBLET Antennas for HF Ham Radio
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Discover the world of HF Ham Radio and learn about doublet antennas, a type of antenna configuration used by amateur radio operators. In this video, we'll delve into the concept of doublets, their characteristics, and how they're used in HF Ham Radio communications. Whether you're a seasoned ham radio operator or just starting out, this video will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of doublets and their role in amateur radio. Learn about the benefits and drawbacks of using doublets, and how they compare to other antenna configurations. Join us as we explore the fascinating world of HF Ham Radio and doublets.
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This is the best explanation of the doublet i've heard. You are a good explainer of things and stuff
@@youtubeaccount931 Thank you, I’m glad you liked the video and found it helpful 👍
I run a 127’ doublet with home brew 600ohm open wire feeder. Goes into a 1:4 balun to an old homebrew tuner with about 18” of coax. I can run 160m - 6m with SWRs under 1,5:1. Works well QRP or with a KW. For experiment I built an attic doublet in my house too. It’s has 2 24’ elements with the last 7’ bent 90deg. It’s fed with 350ohm twinline into a balun equipped tuner. It works 40m to 6m well under 1.5:1. Doublets are super easy and cheap to make with excellent performance. Open line feeder installation is much more forgiving than most claim. I find it’s the best first home antenna for multi band operation. My Elmer told me “If it worked good in 1929 it will work good now”.
That’s for the info Brian, sounds like you doubled down on the dublet 👍
Thank you so much The SmokinApe! Excellent video!☺️
@@Mary-wk6of Thanks Mary, glad you liked it 👍
@@TheSmokinApe Is it possibly to make a home brew copy of that antenna tuner? Have you ever done this? How would I start?
I just happen to be experimenting with a portable field antenna that is an off-center-fed doublet. After I get that working, I want to use linear loading to get one or two lower freq. bands to tune. Fun stuff! Also, John Portune has a video where he protects 450 windowline inside 1/2 inch closed cell pipe insulation so he can lay it anywhere. With loss measurements. Thanks for this overview! ❤
Thanks, glad you liked the video 👍
Well done Ape! I have one of those 901B tuners from MFJ. It does an AMAZING job for ecoms, POTA and times when you are running 100 watts or less. It is small, lightweight and requires no power. It also doesn't need regular updates from the internet. LOL! Best bang for the buck IMO as far as portable tuners go.
PS. I use a doublet for all my HF needs. It is 150 FT long and fed with 50 FT of homemade 600 ohm line. I can tune 160-10M with it, and it will handle full 1,500 watts. Best of all, there is no interaction with other antennas because there are NO other antennas in the yard. Did I mention that it is easy to repair? Yes, and it's on rope pulleys so it is lowered to the ground and disconnected from the shack whenever there is thunder in the area. Not easy to lay all the verticals or towers over if that's what you've got in the 1 minute it takes me to unhitch the ropes on my doublet. Win win win.
Keep up the good work bro. 73
Glad you liked it Hollywood. I appreciate to comment and you watching. Stay warm bro, the snow is coming 👍
The fun thing about antenna design is that it can always be improved. It’s literally an art form.
My first antenna I built, though, was pretty sloppy. It was roughly 16.5’ of speaker wire, and I was able to get it resonant on 20 meters. (14.2MHz 1.3:1 SWR. Surprised me when I tested it). Coupled with a ferrite choke cable instead of a balun. I actually made contacts with it.
This video is a good example of other kinds of antennas one can use. Doublets sound interesting to build. Also I’d love to know more about the G5RV antenna.
Thanks for all of your information!
@@Sonicgott I agree, with each antenna build they get a little better. And you get better at building and repairing. Thanks for watching SG, glad you like the videos 👍
Good presentation, Ape.
The BalUn is 1:4 Ruthrof voltage BalUn and is wired correctly.
The hot end (center conductor of the SO-239 connects to one end (say the start) of the BalUn and to one of the Balanced connection ports on the rear of the tuner. The windings on the torroid are connected in series (so the inductance and hence the impedance becomes 4 times) and the free end is connected to the other port of the Balanced line connector.
The middle of the two windings would go to the ground chassis and hence returned to the shell, the flange (cold end) of the SO-239 connector.
About the merit and the demerit of having the 1:4 BalUn at the output of the tuner, you have already mentioned in the video.
De VU2RZA
@@subramanianr7206 thanks for the info Subraman 👍
, you are welcome, Ape.
De VU2RZA
Great doublet video Ape! My doublet serves me very well. I am definitely a fan. Man, I sure am glad you did not talk about grounding.....I really need to get a good night's sleep LOL!
LOL, thanks for checking it out SF 🍻
I have herd both good and bad things about a doublet antenna. . getting length correct and setup correctly is key to any antenna . For some bands a wide range tuner is a must . Many modern radios have a 3:1 auto tuner . And may not tune a doublet on some bands . They can work great . But from little I done with them I found weather effects tuning . Like ICE buildup on feedline . Like any multi band wire antenna if you cut and make for just 1 band it will work better . I even seen a 9:1 Balen to feed a center fed with random length used. Both legs need to be same length . Use the 9:1 UNUN random cut chart and just 2 of them . 2 -25 ft legs and a 4:1 Balun will tune multi band. their is so many versions to try . Just give it a try is what I say . nice video 73
I think these reasons are why some folks are hesitant to try them. Thanks for watching Robert and stay warm, I hear snow is coming.
@@TheSmokinApe Snow wind whiteouts. That's what we got and cold wind chills . The good side of a doublet is it is a great multi band shortwave listening antenna. SWR is not a factor . Just inference close enough for the receiver to have good gain . Using a pre selector can greatly help pull them meak stations in. I find doublet with per selector can have better signal to noise ratio compared to just a wire antenna .
Great explanation 👍 Many thanks for the information
Glad you found it helpful 👍
Another great Ape answers!
Thanks Steven, glad you liked it 👍
Great video Ape. Thanks!!!
@@bduff5004 glad you liked it 👍
Nice explanation!
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it! 👍
Great video!
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it! 👍
The doublet is a very agile antenna! The military has been using it for a long time. Just look at the PRC-74 and the next generation, the PRC=174 (Korea and Vietnam field backpack radios). Since both radios include and excellent antenna tuner, it made common sense to provide them with doublets. Those two radios share the same doublet antenna. They both use the MK-1742 Dipole Antenna also known as the Hughes Aircraft MK-911 Doublet. This antenna didn't use the bulky window line, but just 30 feet of 72-ohm military twinlead that came with a fixture that also doubled as wire winder. They would just attach both sides of the dipole to this fixture, connect the twinlead to their BNC connector on the radio and were ready to go. Radio operators didn't have to lengthen or shorten the dipoles every time they needed to change frequencies. They would just extend to the lowest frequency they required for the operation they were on and that was it. The antenna tuner did the rest, as they were dealing with, practically, a doublet.
Strange instructions for that MFJ tuner. That tuner looks like the old Heathkit HFT-9 QRP Antenna Tuner. Take a look at the Heathkit instructions for the HFT-9 and compare.
Great video as always!!!
73
Thanks for that info and I check that tuner out 👍
Well done. I plan still to consult with you on modifications to the balun in my MFJ Intellituner. Some of us use twin 75ohm coax as a twinline to avoid coupling issues with metallic items, most importantly masts.
Glad you liked it LC, and let me know when you want to talk baluns 👍
Thanks for the video Ape. As you have seen most of those MFJ manual tuners are all basically the same design, minus a meter or switch. All are pretty good. The only short fall I see is that 4 to 1 balun in the unit is little small and may not handle a lot of power. Thanks agin for the video. I look forward to you results on the fiber glass/carbon fiber mast shoot out at Hamcation. 73
I wonder about the 4:1 as well. I had to cancel the trip 😡
My 92ft Doblet inverted V is a game changer! Today it beat out G5RV into Finland 10 meters.👍👍🎙
That's awesome, thanks for watching 48th 👍
So what’s the reason your supposed to connect a jumper to the random wire terminal. If you mentioned it then it went right over my head.
@@forgetyourlife it links to the center conductor wire that feeds into the capacitor 👍
Another good Video!
FYI "Window Line" is typically called the type in your G5RV pic where it appears that Windows were punched out of a solid insulator. "Ladder Line" OTOH has rod or tube spreaders that visually resemble a Ladder. Call it either as it gets the point across, unless some Sad Ham wants to jump in and show his superior attitude. Functionally the same except when wet or iced over, when the larger area of the "window" type insulator will couple more RF between the conductors than the "ladder" type, and have more loss. Wet/Iced over balanced line typically has more losses than coax. This usually gets ignored or denied when Balanced Line aficionados are bragging about how much more efficient it is over coax. I think they just don't operate/unhook when its raining citing fear of lightening, to rationalize it away... IOW if you don't operate, there's no loss.
73 mike 🍺🍻
@@CriticalThinker-42 thanks for the info Mike 👍
Thinking about putting up a doublet. I was at Home Depot last week, they have many rolls of wire for sale. I was struck by the bare, solid copper wire, 8 gauge at .91 per foot. Would this be significantly better than 18 gauge speaker wire? Thinking about ladder line for the feed. It’s gonna be placed in my attic.
Speaker wire is ok, but I’d use pure copper if possible. Here is a video I did: Building Ham Radio Antennas with Copper Clad Aluminum Wire!?
th-cam.com/video/PPHMJCYFLwg/w-d-xo.html
@ in case anybody was confused, I should have clarified that it was $.91 cost per foot.
8 gauge copper gets out 10 times better than 18 gauge! LOLOL
So, if I use a speaker wire antenna connected to a manual tuner, MFJ-949E, on the Balun wire connections, I should be able to make a 20m inverted V and tune 20m and below, or 40m. Nice!
Only one way to find out, thanks for watching James 👍
@ true, will do!
If you leave the case on how are you going to taste the voltages?? 😂
Fair point 🤔
Doublets are what is ruining Ham Radio..... 😀 lol
@@Thump2030 Right, thanks for watching Thump 👍
The ZS6BKW is much more efficient , (an improved Doublet Design), strongly recommend a quick study before using a G5RV . Enjoy & 73
Those look like great antennas just a little big. Thanks for checking out the video 👍
@@TheSmokinApe I believe the g5rv is 102ft end to end and the ZS6BKW 90ft, so I was surprised by calling it a little big🤷♂. I was a little surprised you didn't pick that one to use as an example. It covers more bands without a tuner.
I would be excited if you would cover the efficiency of balanced line. i.e. currents in opposite directions canceling and reducing radiation and loss. How the tuner becomes part of the antenna circuit and because the small amount of loss in the bouncing signal being reflected (swr?) is bounced back from the tuner and eventually transmitted. These are what caught my attention on what I learned about to be a doublet.
Thank you for what you do. 👍de ki7cia 73
@ when I looked at the ZS6ers I remembered them being really large. Maybe it was that they needed a longer feeder, I can’t recall. I’ll put the balanced line video on the list.
Thanks for watching, it’s appreciated 👍
My first Cw ragchew was with a guy using a tuna tin rig and 800’ doublet. Amazing signal for 1/2watt and it felt nostalgic