Antenna Technology

The Aerial-51 Model 807-L: Table 1: Manufacturer’s Technical Data

Amateur bands 3,5 … 28 MHz except 5 MHz
50,0 … 54,0 MHz*
A Multiband Antenna for HF and 6m SWR ≤ 3,0** except on 10,1 MHz
Length 40,5 m (12 m + 28,5 m)
Weigth 500 g total
Max. Power 500 W/150 W, CW, SSB
Dr. Engineer WERNER HEGEWALD – DL2RD
* German 6 m band: 50,03…51 MHz
** s ≤ 3,5 on 24,9 MHz
No, this Made in Germany Antenna is not based on Alien Technology. It
comes from Spiderbeam and is a 40.5 m long Current-Summation-An-
feedpoint positions where the impedance
tenna that works all HF bands from 3.5 to 30 MHz, as well as the 6m
is nearly equal.
band. The 60m band is not covered and 30m requires an antenna tuner.
Unfortunately, this antenna does not func-
I arrived at the appello/Spiderbeam booth That is incorrect. The fundamental idea tion on 30m nor 15m – a band highly de-
This article describes how it works and present its test results.

at the Friedrichshafen Hamfest in 2017 behind this new antenna is based on the sirable by holders of the German E-class
just as Rick Westerman, DJ0IP, one of Current-Summation-Antenna, a clever con- license.
their technical consultants, was explaining cept put forth by Karl Hille, DL1VU [1]. DL1VU said that finding a feedpoint posi-
the new 807-L multi-band antenna to a Let’s imagine a halfwave dipole for 3.5 tion where an SWR range of less than 3:1
customer. All HF bands from 80m to 10m, MHz. This can also be excited on its high- on all bands is good enough.
plus 6 m, with a single 40.5m-long radia- er harmonic bands, for instance 7 MHz, This enables us to bring in more bands: To
tor, a Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) of un- 10.5 MHz, etc. find this position, he added the currents to-

80+40 +20 +15+10 m

80+40 +20 m 80 +40 +20+ 15 m

Fig. 1.
This handy sized
80+40 m
bundle of a hybrid
balun (above), a long 80 m
wire leg including an 0 30° 60° 90° 120° 150° 180°
RMU Remote
Matching Unit Fig. 5: The principle of the Current-Sum-
(below), and a short mation-Antenna; “Peaks” of the red cur-
wire leg (top right) rent curve show favourable feedpoints.

gether of all bands to be covered, point by

fits into a large pants

point, and graphically represented the re-

pocket.

der 3:1, and a 500W power rating sounded However, the resonant frequency of the sulting sum. The peaks represent points
Photo: Red. FA

interesting. The 60m band was the only higher bands tends to wander slightly up where the sum is the highest and the
band not covered; 30m requires an ATU in frequency. Further-more, the feedpoint impedance of the individual bands, on av-
and should not exceed 150W. This is no impedance is only low on the odd harmon- erage, is relatively low. See Fig. 5.
problem since 150W is the maximum per- ics, 10.5 MHz, 17.5 MHz, 24.5 MHz. On This can be calculated on a PC using free-
missible power level in Germany from 7 MHz, 14 MHz and 28 MHz, its impe- ware software [2].
10.1 MHz to 10.15 MHz. dance is high. Rick used this principle for designing his
The trick is to find a feedpoint position antenna, using EZNEC modelling for the
n Concept away from the middle of the antenna, indispensable fine tuning, followed by
At a first glance, the antenna looks like an where the impedance is nearly the same countless field tests.
Off-Center-Fed Dipole (OCFD). German on as many bands as possible. This is the DL1VU was satisfied using balanced feed-
Old-Timers immediately recall the well- concept behind the FD4 coax-fed Win- line, (i. e., Window-Line), for feeding his
known Windom antenna that Kurt Fritzel, dom. antenna. Using coax is much more user-
DJ2XH, under the name FD4, brought to This can be found simply by plotting the friendly but requires more work in opti-
the German market in the early 1970’s Sinus current flow along the 80m half mizing the parameters. Further, it mandat-
(still available today by hofi, www.hofi. wavelength dipole, by band, onto a piece ed building a balun that not only matched
de). of paper. Points of intersection represent the impedance but also was capable of im-

2,5 2,5 2,5

s s s
2 2 2

1,5 1,5 1,5

1 1 1
3,4 3,5 3,6 3,7 3,8 4 13,9 14 14,1 14,2 14,3 14,5 28 28,2 28,4 28,8 29 29,2 29,6
f [MHz] f [MHz] f [MHz]
6,8 6,9 7,0 7,1 7,2 7,4 20,7 20,9 21,1 21,3 21,5 21,9

Fig. 2: SWR on 80m (blue) and 40m (red), as Fig. 3: SWR on 20m (blue) and 15m (red) as mea- Fig. 4: SWR on 10m. This band favours the SSB

320 • FA 4/18
sured in the shack with 43m of Aircell7 Coax.

www.funkamateur.de
mode.

© Box 73 Amateurfunkservice GmbH 2018

measured with a FA-VA II analyser.
 8 Antenna Technology

Table 2: Measured SWR is in blue The old saying that an SWR of 3:1 is only
1.25 dB loss due to the mismatch doesn’t
7

and Gain simulated over real earth

help much because today’s typical
s

f SWV* Gges GDX

6

[MHz] s [dBi] [dBi] transceiver somewhere between 1.7:1 and

3,68 1,5 4,72 0,44 @ 30° 2:1 begins to fold back its power. If the
5

7,06 1,6 4,72 1,64 @ 22° transceiver has a built-in ATU, operations
10,125 5,2 6,14 3,51 @ 17°
on all bands is no problem. At the same
4

14,2 2,1 5,69 3,02 @ 11°

18,07 1,4 6,88 4,35 @ 9° time, this enables operation on the 30m
21,3 1,7 7,44 5,26 @ 8° band. This proved to be very useful for me
3

24,89
28,5
3,2
1,1
7,54
7,85
4,31 @ 6°
4,70 @ 5° in FT8 operation, because the 807-L cov-
ers a different direction than my Loop an-
2

50,15 2,5 8,93 5,84 @ 3°

* Measured with 43 m Aircell 7 on FA-VA II tenna.
1
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 30

I limited my height to 12.5m at the feed-

f [MHz]

n Simulation Results
point. I used a 15m long fiberglass tele- An EZNEC simulation over real ground
Fig. 6: Measured SWR curves from 3 MHz to

peding the high amount of common-mode- scoping pole from vdl-fiberglas.de with- (i. e., er = 13, s = 5 mS/m), based upon the
30 MHz. The amateur bands are marked.

current associated with this type of anten- out pulling the top segment out (See pic- optimum take-off angle for DX, which
na. ture on page 304). was determined by DL3AO [3], is very in-
When covering 3.5 MHz to 54 MHz, the A stable 12.5m fiberglass pole with its top formative. Figures 9 and 10 show these re-
80m band is especially critical. The result two segments unused supports the end of sults.
was a Hybrid-Balun, that is, a combination the short arm of the antenna, whereas the While the major radiation lobes of the
of Guanella- and Ruthroff-Balun. long arm is extended with a guy rope to an from North to South strung 80m antenna
evergreen tree, such that it can sway freely are off its sides (i. e., East/West), on the
n Praxis in the wind. higher harmonic bands they split into sev-
The handy bundle of wire in picture #1 If one follows the installation directions in eral minor lobes, with the main radiation
weighs about 500 grams, whereby the ma- the user manual and assures a relatively tending to be towards the end of the long
jor contributor is the balun. The RMU – free placement of the antenna, (s)he can arm of the antenna (here, North).
Remote Matching Unit – is used on the simply hang the antenna and forget about In addition, it looks like there are deep
lowest band to establish resonance. It de- it. There is nothing to adjust. Changes to nulls in the horizontal radiation diagram –
termines if the antenna is resonant in the the length of this pre-optimized antenna which is typical for harmonic-excited wire
CW or SSB portion of the band. User pref- should not be attempted. antennas. The lobe splitting is also seen in
erence should be considered when order- SWR measurements made with a FUNK- the vertical radiation pattern.
ing the antenna. AMATEUR FA-VA II analyzer can be For working DX with low band antennas at
The recommended configuration is a slight- seen in pictures 2 to 4 and 6. this low height, the higher vertical radiation
ly inclined, drooping Inverted-V, and Rick’s On 18 MHz the SWR was below 1.4:1 angle produces slightly less than maximum
advice, Height = Might, should be taken across the band, and on the 24 MHz band gain, but the impact is acceptable.
to heart. slightly above 3:1. For working DX with low band antennas
at this low height, the higher vertical radi-
ation angle produces slightly less than
dB 4,72 dBi dB 7,44 dBi maximum gain, the impact is acceptable.
n Summary
-5 -5 7,54 dBi

I was enthused by this antenna from the

very beginning. It is hardly noticeable in
-10 -10

the yard and has proven its DX-ability in

-20 -20 15m @ 8°

countless Pile-Ups – even on 80m and

-30 -30
-40 -40

40m.
Multiband operations from 80m to 6m is
trouble-free, especially in conjunction
80 m @ 30°

with the built-in ATU in modern TRX.

If someone only has 20.3 meters of space
40 m @ 22°

for an antenna, (s)he can simply remove

10 m @ 5°

the RMU and its trailing 20m of wire, and

still have 40m through 6m coverage; I did
not test this feature.
Fig. 7: Simulated horizontal radiation diagram Fig. 9: Simulated horizontal radiation pattern

The Aerial-51 Model 807-L is a lot of an-

for 80m and 40m over real ground. over real ground, for 15m and 10m.

tenna for just 199 Euro.

The 807-L is available from Spiderbeam
GmbH: www.Spiderbeam.com
dB 4,72 dBi dB 7,44 dBi

A sturdier, Heavy Duty version (807-HD)

-5 -5 7,54 dBi

is also available for the same price but is

-10 -10

slightly longer (40.7m) and about 200

22°
-20 -20

grams heavier. See also the market pages

-30 -30 8°
5°

in FUNKAMATEUR magazine 8/2017

-40 -40

and 3/2018.
Fig. 8: Simulated vertical radiation diagram Fig. 10: Simulated horizontal radiation pattern
for 80m and 40m over real ground. over real ground, for 15m and 10m.

© Box 73 Amateurfunkservice GmbH 2018 www.funkamateur.de FA 4/18 • 321

Antenna Technology
Finally, a thank you to Rick, DJ0IP, for the
loan of the antenna and countless produc-
tive discussions.
Literature and Sources
[1] Hille, K., DL1VU: Windom- und Stromsummen-
antennen. FUNKAMATEUR-Bibliothek Band 15,
Theuberger, Berlin 2000, FA-Lerservice: X-9141
[2] Warsow, K., DG0KW: Stromsummen-Antennen-
Berechnung. www.dl0hst.de/stromsummenanten

[3] Schick, R., DL3AO: Der verflixte flache Ab-

nenberechnung.htm

strahlwinkel. FUNKAMATEUR 58 (2009) H. 1, S.

30–34

More infos can be found in the FA-Download area:

http://www.funkamateur.de/downloads.html

322 • FA 4/18 www.funkamateur.de © Box 73 Amateurfunkservice GmbH 2018