EDZ.....

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!KANT
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EDZ.....

Post by !KANT »

Well, after doing some serious surveying of the area [AGAIN!!], I've come to the conclusion that installing a loop will be extremely difficult to complete. So my next option is a Extended Double Zepp. I had three of 'em before--one for 20M (worked 10-80M) and 2 for 40M (10-160M) when I lived in NYC. And I must say they rock!! 3dBd is sweet, but the real downside to the antenna is the narrow beamwidth for the band it's designed for. So, I have to orient it for the best location of stations I want to work. Nonetheless, that will be my best bet due to the situation....though even then, I'm still limited to configure the EDZ broadside east and west.

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Good Ant

Post by Voodoo Guru »

Yes those are great antennas.
They work well in the dirrection of their broadside..and their angle of radiation is fairly low.
Good choice for both long and short range.
If we had the room, we were going to put up a 3 element co-linear phased array for 75 meters for long range. Only problem is that they are single band antenna and they are 360 feet long.
Good thing is they have about 6db of gain in 6 lobes off of the broadside with very low angle of radiation.
We had made one for 40 meters.....we couldn't hardy talk to the locals the radiation angle was so low.
Last edited by Voodoo Guru on Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by !KANT »

3 element??? :shock: That's huge...too huge...[besides would be even more difficult to decide on a configuration with 3 elements]. The length of this one will be 338ft. total and I'll be routing the ladderline straight to the tuner. Hopefully the weather will permit for the installation on friday. I'll use it on other bands and I intend to keep the fan dipole up as a reference. I may have to break out the handbow to get this line up as high as possible--still not sure if I'll bother with it though...might just stay at the 40ft height.

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One wire

Post by Voodoo Guru »

It is only one wire.
It is 3 elements CO-LINEAR. That is the 1/4 wave elements are end to end and phased by using a piece of coaxial cable for the middle element on each leg of the antenna. Total length is 360 feet for one wire antenna but it is 3 elements....actually 3 half wave elements in one line.
You have to use a Balun at the feed point, which makes it a moniband antenna.
To use it as an all band, you would have to use 450 ohm ladder line at as a half wave matching stub. This would be to long to use on 80 meters as you couldn't get it high enough.
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Post by !KANT »

That's why I'm having to break out the handbow to [attempt] to get a decent height. I've used EDZ's as a multiband antenna [yes, with 450Ω ladderline]. --20M EDZ operated extremely well 10M-80M and the 40M EDZ, 10M-160M....performed better than the 20M version and blew away my Force12 on the higher bands [in certain locations].-- I'm feeding it with 300Ω since I have to remain inconspicuous.

***Sorry, I thought you were talking about installing a 3 element EDZ :wink: ***

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Post by !KANT »

It's installed......BUT!!!....It's only up 45ft at the apex and about 9ft. at the ends. This thing is looooooong [340ft.], but easily loads up on 10m thru 160M requiring mainly to adjust only the inductance [for 40M, 80M and 160M]. 10m - 17M the same thing, inductance only. 20M is a different story, requiring adjustment of everything.

I couldn't get a true report so far because the bands didn't sound well --75M is horrible!!! :evil: I had to uninstall the fan dipole [which I was going to use for reference] but all the elements were just getting tangled...a real friggin' mess. And the handbow was worthless sine the tension broke so getting it up 60ft to 90ft wasn't achieved.

Nonetheless, we'll see how it plays in the upcoming days and weeks. Also, I may go for external balun...time will tell.

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Shame, shame, shame

Post by Voodoo Guru »

Its a Shame you had to take down the reference antenna.
We're real curious to hear about the differences in your new antenna.
Keep us posted!
Last edited by Voodoo Guru on Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by !KANT »

Well if today was a good day, hey, I heard nothing to "blow my skirt up". All usual stations are down about 10db. But I am hearing lots of northeast stations on 20M and 17M--that didn't happen with the other antenna and not having the the reference leaves me in the dark. So far I want to reinstall it when I get a chance. Did make some DX contacts, so I figure the band is in decent shape. Just a week or two before I make a final decision. :!:

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'Tenna Performance

Post by Voodoo Guru »

Well??????

How ya like the new 'Tenna???
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Post by dg7lan »

ey ozman, can you send a pic of your new antenna? i always need that to imagine how things look..
...if in doubt, increase bandwidth

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Post by !KANT »

If I took a pic of the antenna you wouldn't see it--it's designed for stealth use--even I have a difficult time trying to find the damn thing...lol. The only thing that will be seen is the ladderline.

I've since changed the EDZ to a 75M loop--I just checked the SWR and it's 1:1 on 3.9MHz [with the new temporary 4:1 Balun--just testing it....it's actually the balun for the CW80. I had to try it to see if it would have eliminated my RFI issues in the home theater...and it does]. The bands have been playing fairly well for the past couple of days, so finding out if it's the antenna has made a difference is hard to determine. I can say that since I've changed from the fan dipole signals have dropped.

Next is a CW80 which I wanted to install today, but we have severe thunderstorms all day :evil: --and I rather install it without spectators...whom called the friggin' cops on me on tuesday when I was getting the loop together. The officer said some called about the possibilty of me trying to steal cable... :evil: WTF??!!!! I have friggin' satelite......stupid, stupid, STUPID people.... That might be a good thing though. I'll figure they definitely won't know what the hell these wires are for, 'cause they're that stupid... :roll: :wink: :D

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Post by !KANT »

Didn't I say I hate spectators??!!!! OMG!!! I had 'em looking out their windows and even coming out on their patios. I believe it was probably because of all the extra help I had--sons, nephew and their friends.

It took about two hours to get this installation completed, probably 'cause of the helpers... :roll: Actually, too many obatacles made it difficult. Besides all the rain and thunder delaying us, breaking the trailing line and the support branch breaking off the tree after another line line was up--rotted out, then missing the secondary branches [several times] :evil: , couple of last minute reconfigurations, drilling new pilot holes for the coax--first one got blocked somehow....[I'd rather not discuss that :evil: ], running a new line to the "lab"...which turned out too short.... :evil: It's obvious Murphy was here to lend a helpful hand.

So far I've only been able to use on 75M [even though 17, 20 and 40 were all open 'til 11pm est]. The reports are that it beat my loop by 5db. On receive it depends on the location. Stations in Florida are a 15db difference over the loop. In the northeast and mid-east only about 10 to 15db.

I'll have to wait until tomorrow [or over the course of the next few days] and do more tests on the higher bands. Though 75M does suck a** right now, I was still able to hear everyone and everyone heard me much stronger on the CW80. I can attest to it's performance [based on tonight's first time reports]. 8)

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Post by !KANT »

***UPDATE***

I get some severe RFI into the audio chain with this windom on 40M [and ONLY 40M] if the output power exceeds 150W.... :evil:

But here is how it all breaks down [interms of receive]....

160M - Loop (of course)...
75M -- Windom
40M -- Windom
20M -- Loop
17M -- Windom
15M -- Loop
12M -- Loop
10M -- Loop

Again, it depends on the received station location and there was a difference between 5db and (as much as) 20db.

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Post by !KANT »

***UPDATE 2***

Well, I found where the RFI is getting into the audio. It's finding it's way into the 1953 and the 533--worse in the previous. This only happens with the Windom. I did upgrade the balun on the loop to the Remote Balun and now the loop matches the Windom on 75 and beats it on anything beyond 400 to 600 miles [on every band]. Not to mention it's quieter!!!

So to eliminate the need of replacing the processors or ordering ferrites, I'll just use the loop.....and I'm not complainin'...[YET!].

With the new balun SWR is as follows...

1.9MHz, 3.9MHz, 10MHz, 14MHz and 18MHz all 1:1 (and no greate than 1.5:1 the entire bands)

all other bands no greater than 2:1

...guess I'm really happy....[for now!]

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Post by !KANT »

The loop has been replaced with a 40 EDZ--which kicks nice but on 160M thru 10M.....even beating the Windom [on ALL bands]. After about a week of the 40 EDZ being installed, I trimmed it to a 114ft dipole [using an antenna analyzer]. And the results are even better!! The Windom was uninstalled two days ago...and I'm not unhappy in any way.

I guess to each his own. I've tried all types of wire antennas over the past several weeks, and thus far this is yields the better results--the fan dipole was still the best performance antenna from 3 months ago.....IMO, for my situation. 8)

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Experimentation is the Key

Post by Voodoo Guru »

Kewl Deal Ozzy!
Well we'll be doin the same thing at the Riverhouse....tryin to find the best all around antenna for the situation there.
Our problem will be lack of room and RF Grounding.
Reason being is of course the space is limited there....and also the Riverhouse is 14' up on pillars. This makes for difficult RF Grounding.
We'll be using a Tunable Buried Radial System that John, N0KHQ came up with. This should take care of the RF Ground problem.
More work though.
We will See!!!!!!!
Last edited by Voodoo Guru on Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by !KANT »

Hey, Greg mentioned that on the air a couple weeks back. I want to get some information on that--sounds like a damn good idea, that works!!! 8) My station is on the second floor so grounding here is near impossible--so I believe. But some friends of mine suggested that any ground is better than none [even if you're on the 3rd or 4th floor]. I'll have to try it and see what happens. I have some ham buds that have tried grounding their station [while they were on the 1st floor] and RFI was introduced when their station was grounded. Once they "floated" the station everything was clear and clean....hmmmmm. Interesting. Would be very interested to see and hear what you put up for the low-bands. Good luck.

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Post by dg7lan »

how does it work guys, i didn´t take care for grounding at all.. wanna put up a ground plate for the shack devices but didn´t find the time yet :(
...if in doubt, increase bandwidth

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