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How to build/mount horizontal dipole antennas between two houses? (lemmy.radio)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It's been too many years since the last time I thought about building antennas, so i'm a bit rusted: I think about installing a nylon cord between my house and my neighbours house (some 40 or 50 meters away) to put a dipole on the cord. Before I start calculating, what lambda fraction for which band I can get with that distance, I have another question: Would it be possible to attach 2 or 3 dipoles for different bands on the same cord? Or would that lead to unwanted resonances between the antenna wires, so I'd better get multiple cords installed, and mount one dipole on each cord?

On a side note: If you have better ideas or other advice, please tell me. Thank you :)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You can run a dipole between two houses, just be sure to do your RF exposure calculations and don't be surprised if you pick up a lot of RFI. You will need to use insulators between the antenna wire and the supporting rope. There is a lot of voltage on the ends of the dipole. If the dipole is less than 1/4 wavelength off the ground, most of the signal will go up. That's good for NVIS on the lower bands, but bad for DX.

You can put multiple dipoles on the same cable, it's called a fan dipole. The wires have to be spread out and can be a pain to work with, but you can get an antenna that's resonant on multiple bands.