G0KSC Fan Club extends to DK7ZB! :-)

Martin DK7ZB contacted me recently asking for information on my designs for presentation in his articles within the German magazine 'FUNKAMATEUR'.   Martin first wrote:   'Hi Justin, with great interest I follow your new Yagi developments. For a short report in the German Magazine "FUNKAMATEUR" about new Yagis I need a high resolution picture of an OWL-Yagi. It is no problem to send me a photo of the commercial version of InnoVAntennas. The remark of the source would be made and I think it would be a good reputation for you, hi.   The best would be the 13-El.-OWL with 8.1-m-boom.   73 de Martin, DK7ZB' 

Martin comments that his writing will be complimentary to InnovAntennas so let us hope he is a man of is word!

Following this he writes:   'Hi Justin,   mni tnx for the indeed useful informations! The 7-El-OP-DES is a very interesting model, bandwidth and pattern is astonishing indeed. I have used the picture of the 11-El.-OWL to show how close the elements are spaced in the radiation centre. The article is in the print (I have written it 6 months ago), I have only mentioned the OP-DES technology without details. The focus was on the UA9TC, the G4CQM and your OWL-Yagis.  

I see about buying EZNEC Pro and the NEC4-engine, but I am no commercial developer and the price is real expensive.   But it is good that younger experts are doing the job, hi.   73 de Martin, DK7ZB'  

Martins later comments about NEC4 was on the basis I had to send him screen shots of the performance figures for the OP-DES and OWL Yagis due to the fact NEC2 based products (such as those he uses) are not as accurate as nec4 in such designs.

The published article presents a biased view that the DK7ZB designs are better than anything else. Funny how he does not mention the DUBUS article where 4 x DK7ZB 70cms antennas were compared with just one YU7EF antenna of the same length, as the single YU7EF was able to hear more weak signals than the 4 x DK7ZB when they were all pointed to the moon. But then again, if you compare a 1980's Skoda with a 2012 Mercedes the same 'no contest' results would occur. For most hams with any antenna design experience the result was no surprise as the YU7EF designs are far superior and the choice prefered for serious hams.

I will be presenting new articles within my monthly antenneX column and within DUBUS on what makes a good Yagi and why '5 minute YO' with anything other than a direct 50 Ohm feed point really are a thing of yesterday.

Remember:

If an antenna is designed correctly, it does not need to be matched to 50 Ohm, it will be 50 Ohm already.

Straight element Yagis are a thing of the past, next generation Yagi performance only comes from curved or bent element Yagis. However, you need to have the right tools (computer design) for the job! YU7EF, DG7YBN and UA9TC have all experimented with curved or bent element Yagi designs and shown some incredible, ground breaking results. While some designers seem to spend their time in monthly columns trying to convince their readership that antenna designs of 15 years ago are still current and 'best of breed' today.

The designs of YU7EF, DG7YBN and UA9TC are excellent (conventional as well as the new bent element versions) and what I use as a benchmark when designing antennas. Considering we now know the limitations of antennas with any form of matching devices,  Nothing other than modern-day 50 Ohm direct feed antennas are worth considering if and when you are looking at new antennas for the modern Ham Radio Station. Don't get mislead into driving a 1980's Skoda, there are plenty of Mercedes out there which will not cost you any more money!

Justin G0KSC