20 Meter Dipole Covers Entire Band (#506)

The question was....how thick wire for bandwidth. I have found that when I use #10 stranded insulated wire, my bandwidth is better when using 12 gage wire and way better than 14 gage wire. Did not do the numbers but I have noticed that on 75 meters, I can get a cross the entire band a 1:3 or better SWR. No tuner on 75/80. I use the same dipole on 40 meters with a Dentron MT2000A tuner to get an SWR of 1:1 all across the band. I could not do that with 12 or 14 gage wire. W1WCR (silent key) who was an electronic engineer, used 6 gage wire for his dipoles and had a flat 1:1 SWR for all of the 75 meter band with no tuner needed. His signal was impressive. I like 10 gage wire because it tangles less than thinner wire and it is just easier to work with. As of July of 2022, 500 feet of 10 gage stranded at Home Depot is $156. Not cheap but I have been able to put up 5 resonant antennas, 1 for each band, (75/80, 40, 20, 17, 10) with that 500 feet. I never use baluns and I do use clamp on ferrite beads just to be safe. Have not had any RFI problems at all even without the beads. The beads are just in case. So does wire thickness make a difference? In my opinion, it seems to be yes. I could be wrong and your mileage may vary. Every station is different. There are so many variables.

The thicker the wire, the lower the antenna "Q", the more broadbanded the reasonance will be. I learned this in the Navy in 1976.

Hi Dave, 2.5mm squared wire is equivalent to our 14 AWG. Formula for dipole in meters is 150 / frequency in MHz. WJ3U

I've always used 10awg THHN. My OCF dipole is 90' one side, 180' on the other and it's been up for 11 years without any issues. I attach dakron rope to the ends with an insulator and run it through pulleys at each end with a suspended weigh. It just "rides" along with the swaying of the trees. My 80 Meter dipole has been up since 2004 and it's never had an issue either. I live atop a mountain in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania and we get lots of storms, icing & wind. Just my existence and I hope it helps others. 73

Do people not watch the whole video before commenting? Dave does a fantastic job and all his videos. They are very informative. Not to mention take a lot of time. Dave thank you.

Another way to get the same answer in meters is 300/14.175 divided by 4 and you will get the length as you would by 468/14.175 .

I totally dig your opening music!! Good ol' big band stuff. Valuable info as well- thank you very much.

I always wondered about a few of those questions you answered them very well thank you very much

Your answer is correct and proper to the question asked. The antenna geek in me took the question literally and thought of a cage dipole. But that would be overkill on 20m.

As someone that is from the broadcast industry. The thicker the better.. I notice skin effect doesn't get a mention. When I say "thicker" I mean more surface area. In my world skin effect means all the power travels in the outer 30% of your conductor.... This is why you see Lattice towers and flat strap..... Don't forget copper rusts like all other metals and this is why the expensive big boy coils are coated copper pipe or flat coated ribbon as the surface resistance will change and thus the tune. I too took the video on it's title.... maybe that's the wrong title? But ever wonder why Shortwave Arrays used for the likes of the Russian Woodpecker look like they do (for example)? There's part of your answer.... The cage broadens the tune, and the power handling.... 73's all

Good review thanks Dave

Great videos Dave.

I made a RL EFLW out of some scrap insulated stranded 18 awg wire. So far, I’ve received WAS and 21 countries running less than 20w pep.

You did a good job on answering the question you read but after watching the video 4 times, I didn't hear the question in the title talked about.

For receiving short wave radio as a kid, I used solid tinned antenna wire about 20 or 22 gauge. It held up well in southern California, even with the Santa Ana winds.

I use a 2.5 lb. barbell weight on one end to keep the wire tight. As wind blows it will adjust up and down. I live on the Gulf Coast so on a nice spring day we will have 70 MPH winds, If a hurricane comes my way I can bring the entire mast and antenna down in less than 5 minutes. I use Flip-Tite Tie-Down Straps on my mast so it can be brought down in less than a minute after I get the wire antenna off it.

Hello Dave. I think in the metric system it is pretty easy. If you want a half wave dipole on 20m band, you just calculate 20m/2 which is 10m. No need to make the feet calculation before. It is not a critic. I really appreciate your work a lot. Thank you for doing all these information rich videos.

Good info😃

thank you!

In my experience, when using a balun the inductance in the balun will result in the elements being slightly shorter. On element thickness I experimented on 144MHz by glueing aluminium foil to cardboard. A very wide strip was shorter than a thin one for a perfect match. The wider strip had a wider bandwidth. With HF antennas thin coax cable shorted together gives under 2:1 across the whole of 10m. A thinner wire would not. Unless the balun was very lossy.