[Antennas] just a little help on this DIS-7-1 antenna

Fri May 27 15:59:06 EDT 2005

I've assembled the antenna.
http://www.hy-gain.com/man/pdf/DIS-71.pdf
The manual says to make a shorting wire across all 4 linear loading wires.
What I did was take some aluminum bar stock 1/8" thick, 7/8" wide and 2" long and cut them 
into two pieces for each set of linear wires.
sawed a slight groove in one for the wire to sit and bolted the two pieces together.
The chart in Chapter 4, pages 13 indicates that the shorting is approx 19" from the 
insulator out at the end of the wires.
This effectively makes the linear loading wires shorter.
hanging on the wood fence, I used an MFJ and reached a resonant dip at a much shorter 
distance from the end.
Is this because the dipole is only 5' off the ground???
I'm betting it is.
Has anyone built this unit for 30 meters and what measurement from the end of the linear 
loading wires did you fine best?
(I used the bar stock shorting device as I figured it would be an easy way to make final 
adjustments up on the tower.)
Please and thank you.
-----------------------------------------------------
If evolution were a fact then cats would use can openers.
-----------------------------------------------------
Bill H. in Chicagoland