As there is little news this time, perhaps during the winter nights six metre enthusiasts might like to experiment with my ‘Zig-Zag’ four-element vertical for lofts.
All you need it some stranded ‘hook-up’ wire, wooden (or plastic) battens as supports and a 102 inch (2.59m) length of 450 ohm ladder-line. It is basically a two-wavelength wire formed into a close-spaced array with all the ‘elements’ driven. The antenna is fed by a Zepp-type transformer but it should be possible to feed it from the low-Z point via a gamma-match, although I haven’t tried it.
The diagram at the bottom of page 7 shows the aerial and a suggested method of rotation. The boom-length is five feet (1.5m); nylon cord can be used to suspend the wire from the top parts. Space the vertical elements as far apart as the wire will allow (about 20 inches/50cm) but the total wire length MUST be 36 ft/11m for 50.150 MHz. Try to keep the elements aligned and all at the same height.
Mine appears to work well and I estimate the gain to be around 6-7dB over a dipole. But it is useful in all directions, the polar diagram seems pretty ill-defined - at least in my loft!
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