FT98 = Flat Top 98 foot Dipole Antenna

I developed this antenna for Field Day in about 1990 and have built quite a few of them for both temporary and permanent installations since. It is designed to be very simple to fabricate and yet very effective especially on 80, 60 and 40 meters. It is a balanced antenna, fed with balanced line, so an antenna tuner with balanced output is required.

Parts Required

• 100 foot coil of wire for the antenna, gauge between #12 and #26
• 100 foot coil of twinlead or ladder line for feedline, 300 to 450 ohm
• three insulators
• two wire nuts
• Dacron or Nylon cord, several feet
• Tie wrap

Fabrication Process

• Split the 100 foot antenna wire into two equal lengths. The length is not critical, but should be equal. Put an insulator at each end and in the middle between the two antenna wires, and use the wire nuts to connect the wires to the balanced feedline. Wrap a turn of balanced line around the center insulator and fasten with a tie wrap for strain relief.

Impedance

• EZNec 4.0+, #20 wire, 25 feet elev over medium (.006,13) high accuracy ground, 100W
• 3555 khz 22.9 -j530, 1100 volts, 4.1 dbi gain straight up (NVIS)

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AlanB