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Palomar 95.375' Zeppelin Antenna

    Antennas On The Switch

    • Palomar 95 (P95) - August - September 2021: Tested remaining configurations of antenna length, UNUN mounting height and counterpoise use, configuration and length.  Settled on a wire 95.375 ft in length with the UNUN at the top of the 30 foot  flag pole, and no counterpoise.  Modeled this configuration in 4NEC2 and compared it's predicted performance to observed performance in PSK Reporter while making hundreds of FT8 QSO's.  For my location with it's restrictions this antenna length is ideal.  In a less restricted location I think I would investigate the 200-300 foot antenna length.  The MFJ 993b Antenna Tuner has made this configuration really shine!

    ZEP Antenna Configurations

    The Palomar Bullet 9:1 UNUN connects the 50 ohm coax to a psudo-random length of antenna wire.  I say psudo-random because there are specific requirements for the length that this wire should not, and can not be.  That would be any lenght that is resonant on any band the antenna will be used on.  Picking a practical wire length is non-trivial to operate on 80-40-30-20-17-15-12-10 Meters.  In my case where I am severely constrained, I believe I can get away with about a 90' horizontal run combined with the 30' height of the tall flag pole.  An 95' foot wire probably is the longest I can expect to use at this location.  136', 140.5', 117.5' and anything over 295' are options, but too long (maybe).

    NOTE: Fall of 2021 - After testing many lengths and UNUN mounting heights, I have settled on a 95.375 foot wire length with the UNUN at 30 feet AGL.  This will be know as Config 12 and is likely the final configuration of this HWEF antenna.  My QSL Notes will from October 2021 refer to this antenna as P95.



    The Bullet is rated at 200W FT8

      

    The Bullet UNUN at 30' AGL, no counterpoise, no guys.
    Later I added a guy from the hoisting eye to the fence in the opposite direction from the antenna about 30' away.  I plan to add another guy to a flying anchor off the shack's front left corner (near the 2M antenna) to relieve some of the stress on the pole.


    This is what it looked like at 55 feet.  Apparently I don't have a photo of the full length 95.375 ft antenna yet.
    I'll swap out this photo and caption when I do.

    Following are notes from each configuration I tested. 
    The elements that were modified are the height of the UNUN, the presence of a counterpoise, and mostly the length of the antenna wire.

Config 1


      In the first configuration, I put the UNUN at the top of the pole and ran the wire out terminating with a 10' nylon rope to keep the end of the antenna out of reach of passers by.  

Config 2

      Moved the Bullet UNUN to 72" AGL.

      I discovered through reading various antenna manufactures descriptions of working antenna installations, that the UNUN doesn't have to be especially far above ground, and that the antenna wire doesn't have to be especially straight in any plane.

      So for this configuration I mounted the UNUN at about 5' AGL, ran the antenna wire (55') to the top of the pole, 30' AGL and then down to 7'.  This shortened my horizontal run 20'.

Config 3

      Installed 17' counterpoise 'under the antenna' at 0' AGL.