Curled vertical antenna for VHF 2, 4 or 6 meter band ( 145, 70, 50 Mhz)

Introduction

Thinking about the construction of a simple lightweight 4 and 6 meterband vertical antenna , I got the idea for this curled, single radial, design.

Testing on 4 meter it appeared to work very well. SWR soon went 1:1. The design has many advantages above a tradional GP.

These GP's always have 3 or 4 radials which are heavy, compared with this design.

Benefits are:

* easy to construct

* very easy to tune for SWR and frequency.

* less material needed

* light weight and small.

* low wind load

* only 0,2 dB less gain then a dipole has.

Disadvantages

*some horizontal signal will come in (although this also might be a benefit..)

Notes for the design:

I was searching for a one radial counterpoise idea. The radial could be straight about 30 degrees from the mast, but that would mean a non symmatric design. Therefor I found this curled radial design. It shouldn't touch the mast; Therefore I placed a PVC support tube at 3 cm from the mast. It can be moved up and down for easy tuning. The radial has to pass the mast on 90 degrees.

Here some pictures of the prototype:

PE Waterpipe as insulator and support for the radiator.

TESTING THE PROTOTYPE

The lower element of the radiator is of 10mm alu and 48 cm long; the upper 60 cm of 8 mm alu. tube. This can be moved up and down.
Total length is 1.01 m.

Changed the 'curl' a bit to concentrate the current more vertical..