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TopBand: Folded unipoles

To: <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: TopBand: Folded unipoles
From: km1h@juno.com (km1h @ juno.com)
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 11:44:28 EDT
On Mon, 6 Oct 1997 22:39:19 +0000 w8jitom@postoffice.worldnet.att.net
writes:
>> From:          Peter Chadwick <Peter.Chadwick@gpsemi.com>
LOTS OF SNIPS
>
>The only thing that changed is the feedline current is now 1/2 ampere 
>at 60 volts, which is STILL 30 watts.
>
>We could do the same thing with an L network, or a simple 
>transformer. But make no mistake about it, no matter what method we 
>use ground loss would remain EXACTLY the same.
>
>Adding ground loss into this equation makes no difference at all. 
>Since ground CURRENT remains the same, ground loss remains the same 
>in either system. Any thoughts to the contrary are absolutely 
>incorrect.
>
>73, Tom W8JI

I'm confused Tom....
Your first assumption was that the 1/4 wave monopole was over perfect
ground....correct?
But in that case of course there is no ground loss and all the math works
just fine. 

Take a REAL system with 35 Ohms Z and 12 Ohms of ground loss; not
uncommon in many residential installations. The VSWR looks real good but
1/3 of the power is warming the worms( ~ 2dB). No matching section
involved or required here. 

Next fold that wire and we have a 4X impedence transformation so the
radiation resistance is now 140 Ohms. The ground loss is still 12 Ohms
but that is only 8.6%  of the total. Assuming a quality matching network
the loss in the ground now is only a fraction of a dB. 

Is it worth the effort and complexity for 2 dB or less? Can the builder
construct an almost lossless matching network?  Thats up to the
individual IMO. In my case I work hard for every dB or fraction I can
get. 

Perhaps someone here will model this and report one way or the other. I'm
just going with what I have thought was the correct assumption. 

73   Carl   KM1H
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