Introducing the Mad Dog Coils Dipole Mounts

The Kelpie and Blue Heeler (named after Australian working dogs) are mounts that enable two Mad Dog Coils with antenna whips to be setup as a V-dipole.
This video explains the products and shows them being used.
More information or to purchase go to maddogcoils.com.au

[@HamRadioDX]

This is great to see Marty! Love to see the MDC being developed even more!

[@paulthompson1988]

Very informative video and great products, Marty. Cheers. VK5PT

[@timg5tm941]

Good job Marty!

[@maddogshamradio3407]

Thank you Tim. No new concepts here as it has all been done before and well proven. But it is good to be have control of the design of the dipole mount to ensure the strength.

[@AndrewMcClenaghan4182]

Do you have a recommendation for the tripod adaptors for these?

[@octavs_ER1SKI]

great idea! thanks for inspiring us!! as they say in the famous movie series - to boldly go where no one has gone before, yep... I will definitely use this "yagi approach" when it warms up! (I will make a full set, adding a director also)

[@maddogshamradio3407]

I would love to hear how your testing goes with director and reflector.

[@octavs_ER1SKI]

​@@maddogshamradio3407 I will explore this subject until it gets warm here, so that the best option is chosen. Yeah, there's no best option, ha-ha, but, well, best for our specific circumstances/setup! So, I will keep bugging you with comments here... 🙂

[@octavs_ER1SKI]

Marty, unlike the driven, - the reflector (and director too) should not be separated/isolated in 2 pcs, i.e. in your experiment you should have shortened the 2 arms of the parasitic reflector at the junction, where the Blue Heeler is. Maybe you did it, but I wasn't able to see it clearly. Now, if you did not, and you've got the 2 S-points added, then I guess, shortening them would bring an even better result. Just thinking loud...

[@octavs_ER1SKI]

Here's what I read in the theory: "The impedance of a dipole if it were alone (with nothing around, no ground plane or anything) is 73 Ω when used at its resonant frequency. The presence of the two neighboring elements (the reflector and the first director) causes the impedance to be significantly altered and can easily reach 15 or 20 Ω. A common solution is that the driven element is made with a folded dipole, this configuration allows to raise the impedance 4 times. So, if we bring the parasitic elements close enough so that the impedance of the dipole is close to 12.5 Ω, when raised 4 times it reaches the desired 50 Ω"! (another solution is a Gamma Match that consists of a section parallel to the main element with capacitive coupling -- but the problem with it is that it's meant for a specific freq, and this is not good in our case, as the whole idea was to have a changeable/multiband setup, given the ability to change the coils indiuctance).

[@octavs_ER1SKI]

so, again thinking loud, until you wake up, he-he! -- this means that to get the desired 50 ohms we just need the driven to be as folded dipole, i.e. to add one more wire in parallel. But, hey, given that we have a V config here, with the arms stretching far away, why not to simply connect the 2 arms with a wire! then we enter into the Delta Loop territory! whoaaa!!

[@kd5inm]

Hey Marty, did you spin the dipole configuration around to where the station you were trying to contact was off the side of the dipole? I would think that the dipole configuration would be stronger signalwise than the vertical because it would be more directional. Very good video.

[@GH0ST369]

How much line loss on the banana plug feed point vs a soldered?

[@ve2zdx]

Have you tried this as a delta loop? 73!

[@maddogshamradio3407]

Actually I have but it was windy and even with the antenna moving slightly in the wind the swr was jumping all over the place. I will try again in no wind conditions.