ANTENNA FOR NEW STATION

[WRPO]

Has anyone used the 'Dominator NWE-34 antenna? If so how does it work for you?

 

[techie2]

Looks like snake oil to me. A lot of LPFMs bought those crappy Comet whips and similar things like this and wound up with poor coverage as a result. Several much better designs can be had for just a few hundred more.

 

[RadioMan203]

I've seen those used by some, eh, pirate stations. Wouldn't want an antenna with circular polarization? I can't imagine that thing doing justice to your coverage area.

 

[Groove1670]

Don't skimp on your antenna. Go with a Jampro, Shively, etc, and a good transmission line.

You can have all the bells and whistles in your studio, but if you have a poor transmitting setup..well.

 

[Nostalgia]

Don't skimp on your antenna. Go with a Jampro, Shively, etc, and a good transmission line.
You can have all the bells and whistles in your studio, but if you have a poor transmitting setup..well.

DITTO and Double Ditto! This is really the business end of your station, and due to its cost and the fact that its hanging at least 100' up in the air, its something that is not easily tweaked! If you must work on a budget, may I suggest PSI antennas. We just got our 3 bay for a translator and when it is installed I will let you know how it performs. But the company was good to work with, delivery was on schedule, the price was right, and upon initial inspection the antenna looks well made. Same with the feedline. We are using 7/8" heliax with 7/8" EIA connector at the antenna. With the lower loss in this cable and higher gain with the 3 bay antenna, our transmitter will loaf along instead of running balls to the wall 24/7. Less heat load on the AC, lower electric bill, and longer life/lower maintenance on the TX! Long term I think this is a good investment.

 

[Chuck]

Yep. I "cheaped out" on the antenna when we first went on the air. It was a low end two bay version of a regular broadcast design, and worked OK for a couple of years. After a while, we started to lose coverage every time it rained. It would take several days for things to come back to normal. The exploratory missions were getting quite expensive and no permanent cure had been found. After several tower climbing expeditions trying to figure out what was wrong, I decided to just replace it with a quality antenna. The "brand name" antenna has been in service for about 8 years and has never given the slightest problem. In fact, as soon as we applied power, it became obvious that it works much better than the cheap version ever did. Once I had the old antennas on the ground, the problem became obvious when about a cup of water poured out. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

All of this was a very expensive lesson. Not only did I have to buy a second antenna, but I also had the cost of tower climbers trying to figure out what was wrong with the first one. Then I had the cost of taking down the defective antenna bay and replacing it. All totaled up, just the labor to mess around with this cost more than the price of a quality antenna. Some lessons, you learn the hard way.

 

[druidhillsradio]

I've seen those used by some, eh, pirate stations. Wouldn't want an antenna with circular polarization? I can't imagine that thing doing justice to your coverage area.

Not sure what you mean?

 

[RadioMan203]

Not sure what you mean?

At least from the documentation I see about it, the Dominator is vertically polarized. Most commercial and non-comm applications use a circular polarized antenna. If vertical polarization was so revolutionary more stations would use it, right?

I'm sorry, it *may* me good for what it is, but it's no Shively (or other comparable manufacturer).

 

[part15radioman]

all there is to a dominator is it's simply a 3/4 wave J pole using a fancy gamma match. nothing more to it than that. can be easily built at home using copper pipe. comets are self explanatory. simply a 5/8 wave ground plane.

no special magic to either.

a 2 bay vertical dipole or 4 bay CP will do better than either antenna.