im running a morad vertical on AM. i found a stainless top piece to an old discone antenna. its a center ring with about 12 radials sticking out of it. whole thing is maybe 15-18" wide.
is it worth adding this as a cap hat to my vertical?
im running a morad vertical on AM. i found a stainless top piece to an old discone antenna. its a center ring with about 12 radials sticking out of it. whole thing is maybe 15-18" wide.
is it worth adding this as a cap hat to my vertical?
I'd say definitly so when running a short antenna. It will help get more of the energy towards the top of your antenna which can help get over trees and near by objects. Without one most of the energy remains lower in your radiator. It will also help increase the bandwidth of your antenna so less tuning is involved to get it to resonate and will give you better audio bandwidth if your antenna is tight on frequency but gives in a few KHz away. Doing so could hypothetically make your high end audio not get cut off as easily for a less muddy sounding signal.
This thread reminds me I need to do the same. Right now I am just running a long 40 foot wire for AM broadcasting. Gets me out 5 miles with 5 watts but I bet a capacitance hat could help out here also.
The good thing is they can be made out of just about anything. Even a stupid pie tin can work in a pinch.
My antenna is a bit of a sloper at an angle though so because it's not a perfect vertical I wonder if a caphat would still work as well. Maybe someone can answer my question in here also?
guess i'll be pulling the antenna down again (sigh) and drilling the top rod to mount the cap hat. anything to get out!
Well I guess anything can really make a caphat as long as it looks like a plate electrically at the top of the antenna. If you can maybe bend out those bottom parts so they are horizontal along with the top pieces.
i have just the top section of the discone. the flat part. its already drilled so i just have to drill the top rod on the antenna and find a sheetmetal screw that will grip. its 1/2" solid aluminum rod.
The cap hat will have dropped the resonance, so you'll have to retune the antenna at the antenna and not with a tuner. Lots of LWCA people swear by them
not sure how this thing tunes. its a TIS antenna. i got it used so no manual. apears to me that the only thing that may be adjustable is the top "stinger" which is a 1/2" solid aluminum rod with a collar. considering the wavelength, do you guys think sliding that stinger rod a few inches either way is really going to do it?
ok, tried again today. up the ladder / down the ladder. bring ant down / out and up. my neighbors where quite entertained.
the cap had idea didnt work. antenna wouldnt load up. tried extending and shortening rod that cap hat was on and that didnt do squat. im giving up on the cap hat for now. added more ground radials instead just for that warm fuzzy feeling that i got something done today.
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