465
Item nr.


Gerard E2 Antenna

Prototype antenna, replaced by E3


Data for Gerard E2
ProductionThe Netherlands, 2017.
BandsContinental Shortwave (3800-11000kHz).
CabinetPlastic. Size 13x13cm. Weight 250gr.
DocumentsDesign sheet.

The Design

This small project was mainly built as a test for my Antenna Calculator. I used a tuning capacitor of about 285pF from my junk, and attempted to receive common European communications in the 80m, 75m, 60m, 49m, 40m, 41m, and 31m bands.

Obtained7/2017 from Home built.
Condition7.
DisposedScrapped 8/2021.

This Object

Building a piece like this is a matter of an hour or less. I used an ice cream box as coil form, and attached the tuning capacitor and antenna jack on this box. To reduce hand effect, I grounded the tuning cap to the outer lead of the antenna coax.

The tuning range did not come out completely as I hoped, it runs from 3800kHz to 11MHz. Nonetheless, this covers all shortwave broadcast bands I wanted. Later I reduced the number of turns from 4 to 3 (to extend the range on the higher end). In the Spring of 2021 I made the coil switchable between 2 and 5 turns. With 2 turns the upper frequency goes to about 15MHz, but the quality of "switched" loops is less. I observed this earlier with the "Mother of all Raam Antennas". The E2 was dismantled on August 11, 2021, and I used its parts and the experiences gained with it for its successor, the E3.


Part of Gerard's Radio Corner.
Generated by SiteBuilder on 26/2/2024 by Gerard (g.tel@uu.nl)