The inverted-vee dipole is a half-wavelength antenna fed in the center like a dipole.By the rigorous definition, the inverted-vee is merely a variation on the dipoletheme. But in this form of antenna (Fig. 6-7), the center is elevated as high as possible from the earth’s surface, but the ends droop to very close to the surface. Angle a can be almost anything convenient, provided that a > 90 degrees; typically, most inverted-vee antennas use an angle of about 120 degrees. Although essentially a compensation antenna for use when the dipole is not practical, many operators believe that it is essentially a better performer on 40 and 80 m in cases where the dipole cannot be mounted at a half-wavelength (64 ft or so).By sloping the antenna elements down from the horizontal to an angle (as shownin Fig. 6-7), the resonant frequency is effectively lowered. Thus, the antenna will need to be shorter for any given frequency than a dipole.
There is no absolutely rig-orous equation for calculation of the overall length of the antenna elements. Although the concept of “absolute” length does not hold for regular dipoles, it is even less viable for the inverted-vee. There is, however, a rule of thumb that can be fol-lowed for a starting point: Make the antenna about 6 percent shorter than a dipole for the same frequency. The initial cut of the antenna element lengths (each quarterwavelength) is
After this length is determined, the actual length is found from the same cut-and-try method used to tune the dipole in the previous section. Bending the elements downward also changes the feedpoint impedance of the antenna and narrows its bandwidth. Thus, some adjustment in these departments is in order. You might want to use an impedance matching scheme at the feedpoint, or an antenna tuner at the transmitter.220