Thanks to Ralph Gable of "Electronics for the Inquisitive Experimenter" video channel for this step-by-step method of building a folded inverted Vee antenna for the 80 Meter Amateur Radio Band.
Ralph says the procedure works for any HF band you choose.
If you can't see the video, please insert this title URL into your browser search box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McbDL1GxbqI
Here are some comments from Ralph:
In this video I will be showing you how I created a Folded Inverted-Vee Antenna for the 3.5 to 4.0 MHz Amateur Radio 80 meter band. I will walk you through the whole process so you can create your own for any frequency you choose. Why do this? A Folded Dipole or Folded Inverted-Vee antenna has significantly wider bandwidth than its non-folded cousins. I wanted to increase the bandwidth of my antenna to cover more of the 80m band. Here is the promised link to the 4NEC2 model: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FN1M... Time Markers for Your Convenience ---------------------------- 00:05 Initial Comments & Introductions 01:07 What is an Inverted-Vee Antenna? 01:36 Why use an Inverted-Vee Antenna? 02:14 What are the characteristics of an Inverted-Vee Antenna? 02:45 Why create a Folded Inverted-Vee Antenna? 03:49 How does the current antenna perform? 03:59 Introducing the antenna 04:32 Its performance - the VNA scan results 05:23 Planning the new Antenna 05:27 Starts in 4NEC2 - a Quick Tour of the Model 09:39 The Pieces and Parts 09:45 The Center Support 10:41 The Spreaders 12:19 End Supports, Insulators, Spreaders 12:58 The Wire 14:20 Assembling the Antenna 16:28 Testing & Tuning 17:31 How much wire do I trim to tune? 20:22 The FINAL Performance Results 21:38 Final Comments and Toodle-Oots
