The 'Zeppe' Pole
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Zeppe-pole antenna
Zepp' antenna (short for Zeppelin), was first invented by the Germans for use in their lighter-than-air balloons. Trailed behind the airship, it consisted of a single element, one half wavelength long radiator with a quarter wave parallel feedline tuning stub. This was later modified into the J-pole configuration, which became popular with amatuer radio operators because it is effective.
The Zeppe-pole antenna is an end-fed omnidirectional dipole antenna that is matched to the feedline by a quarter wave transmission line stub. Matching to the feed-line is achieved by sliding the connection of the feedline back and forth along the stub until a VSWR as close as possible to 1:1 is obtained. Because this is a half-wave antenna, it will exhibit gain over a quarter-wave ground-plane antenna. The Zeppe-pole is somewhat sensitive to surrounding metal objects, and should have at least a quarter wavelength of free space around it. The Zeppe-Pole is very sensitive to conductive support structures and will achieve best performance with no electrical bonding between antenna conductors and the mounting structure.
Zepp' antenna (short for Zeppelin), was first invented by the Germans for use in their lighter-than-air balloons. Trailed behind the airship, it consisted of a single element, one half wavelength long radiator with a quarter wave parallel feedline tuning stub. This was later modified into the J-pole configuration, which became popular with amatuer radio operators because it is effective.
The Zeppe-pole antenna is an end-fed omnidirectional dipole antenna that is matched to the feedline by a quarter wave transmission line stub. Matching to the feed-line is achieved by sliding the connection of the feedline back and forth along the stub until a VSWR as close as possible to 1:1 is obtained. Because this is a half-wave antenna, it will exhibit gain over a quarter-wave ground-plane antenna. The Zeppe-pole is somewhat sensitive to surrounding metal objects, and should have at least a quarter wavelength of free space around it. The Zeppe-Pole is very sensitive to conductive support structures and will achieve best performance with no electrical bonding between antenna conductors and the mounting structure.