4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE

(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

This article is dedicated to my friend Bill Stevenson - G4KKI (SK), a fellow RSARS member, who shared my
passion for home-brewing and antenna experimentation. We spent many hours discussing different radio
topics and compact antenna designs. Shortly before he passed away, we discussed the findings from my
study of the open loop off-centre fed antenna and the successful experiments that produced this final design .
Mario G8ODE RSARS1691

See Table 1 for dimensions of the antenna elements

20 / 10 m OCFD element

174cm#
17m OCFD element
15m OCFD element
126cm#
Polypropylene
Chopping Board
105cm# Black
Tie-Wrap
# measured Insulator
from centre

22mm
Pipe
Clips

80cm#

Coax
Choke
Balun

Fibreglass Antenna
Fishing Pole Relay
Switch

See also “Assembling the COLA and initial tuning”

Not to scale © 2014 G8ODE COLA . All rights reserved.

TABLE 1
20m 17m 15m

COLA Elements short side long side short side long side short side long side

7'4" 2.4m 24'2" 7.37m 5'2" 1.57m 18'5" 5.61m 4'4.5" 1.33m 15'6" 4.72m

G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0

 4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

The 4 Band Open Loop OCFD Introduction.

Deploying a centre fed open loop half-wave dipole in a square
shape lowers the impedance to around 8-12ohms. Steve Webb
- G3TPW, overcomes this problem by using a 300 ohms folded
dipole raising the impedance by a factor of 4. Steve Hunt -
G3TXQ, took a different approach and his design uses a 1:4
step up balun transformer to compensate for the low
impedance. Another way to increase the feed point impedance
of the open loop dipole antenna is to feed it off-centre, but for
multiband operation masthead relays are required to switch
bands.

How the COLA antenna project was conceived.

Encouraged by the results of the MMANA-GAL Study of Open
Loop Dipole Antenna, also published in the RSARS e-Library, a
decision was made to build the antenna as an RSARS project.

The task was split up into four phases.

i). Designing and building the antenna support
ii). Designing a masthead relay switch
iii). Stringing and tuning each wire element
iv). Designing the remote control box.

Design of the antenna support.

It was important that costs be kept to a minimum and make use
of readily available components

Components List for the antenna support

1. 3 metre fibre glass fishing pole blanks – 5 off

2. Re-cycled thick polypropylene chopping board,

( trimmed down to form a square). 12"x12" (30x30cm).

3. 10 off 22mm WickesTM “locking” plastic pipe clips.

4. 10 off Nuts and bolts , 2 self tapping screws to secure the pipe
clips and steel leg to the mast.

5.. 6m RG58 coax & 2 off PL259 (for the Balun choke)

6. Choke Former, 25cm grey 50mm diam plastic drain pipe.

7. WickesTM Round furniture Leg -“Grey” 32mm diaX150mm long).

8. 4 off 6mm bolts & Ny-Lock (locking nuts) to secure foot

to the chopping board

9. 30cm length of plastic hose pipe.

10. Swaged aluminium mast sections 4 off 4'0" ( 1.2m)

11. 4 insulators - 6"x ½” (15cm x 1.2cm) black tie-wraps

Note:-
The same support can be used for either the G3TWP or the G3TXQ Close up of the assembled 3 element COLA
5 -band Cobweb antenna, or for a compact Moxon beam Antenna.

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4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

Antenna Support Details

The pencil lines are drawn from the corners of the
chopping board to align the position of the clips that
secure the fishing poles and the holes for the furniture
leg, see Fig2 .

Packing Fig1 shows the 22mm pipe clips snapped together

shim gripping the nylon collar of the fishing pole end cap.

The 22mm pipe clips at the board edges require

shims made from 30cm of salvaged garden hose to
pack the gap caused by the tapering fibreglass tube,
so that the tube is gripped snugly and not crushed
Fig1 when the clips are snapped closed.

Rubber
foot Figure 2 shows the Wickes furniture steel leg secured
to the underside of the cut down chopping board.

The leg has a 32 mm OD diam and matches the

aluminium tube mast section.

The rubber foot is removed and discarded, see Fig3

Fig2

Fabricated Fig 3 shows how the furniture leg is secured to the

Split sleeve
insert top of the aluminium mast section using a fabricated
split sleeve insert.

The insert is made by cutting a 20cm length from the

bottom one of the mast sections. Preferably the one
that will be sunk into the ground. Take care not to cut
the swaged end off.

A slit is cut 1 /4" (4mm) wide along the full length of

the 20cm off cut using an angle grinder or hacksaw.

Compress the tube slightly using a bench vice, so that

it will fit snugly into the ends of the leg and mast tube.

Secure the leg, split tube and mast section together

using self tapping screws.

Fig3

G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0

4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

Various Chokes tested during COLA evaluation.

Fig 5

Ferrite -Coax Choke 1:1 Current Balun

1:1 Air -Cored Coax Choke

Fig 4 Installed 1:1 Air Cored Coax Choke & Relay Switch

TABLE 2
R G 58 S h o rt tail 12" 30cm R G 58 L o n g tail 21" 53cm
C o ax C h o ke
B alu n D rain P ip e F o rm er
ID 2" 50m m 32 T u rn s R G 58

A Common-Mode Current (CMC) choke prevents the coaxial line from becoming a part of the antenna system and
radiate RF energy when connected to the unbalanced output of a modern transceiver. The loss in power can be
quite significant and the radiation characteristics of the antenna compromised. A coaxial choke or 1:1 current balun
will prevent this by behaving as a high-impedance to the common mode currents to choke them off. For half wave
dipoles, the design impedance of “chokes” needs to be about 1K ohms at the lowest operating frequency. The
various chokes evaluated are shown in Fig4.

However, asymmetrical antennas such as the Off-Centre-Fed Dipole (OCFD - split 1/3+2/3 or 1/6 +5/6) or, in this
case, the COLA, have additional current imbalance and require choking of at least 2k ohms. The choke should be
located at the mast head end of the feed line.

During the evaluation of the COLA , the choke that produced the best COLA SWR results was the ugly balun or
1:1 Air -Cored Coax Choke to give it its proper name. The final design shown in Table 2, comprises 32 turns of
RG58 wound tightly on a 50mm diam grey plastic drainpipe with two tails terminated with PL259's, see Fig 5.

G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0

 4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

Fig 6 Assembled Mast Head Antenna Relay Switch 5A/12Vdc 4PDT Miniature Relay

Constructing the Mast Head Antenna Relay Switch

The Mast Head Antenna Relay Switch Fig 6, is constructed in a grey plastic PVC case. The single sided copper laminate has a
wide groove cut down the centre, creating two wide copper tracks and acts as a base board for the two relays that are stuck to
it using double sided tape. The PCB is sprayed with clear lacquer to protect against damp, but this evaporates locally during
soldering. The board was not re-sprayed after soldering. The two tracks are decoupled from RF using two 0.01uf 500v ceramic
capacitors.

One connection of each relay’s coil is soldered directly to one track. The second track is soldered to relay RLA’s second coil
connection, while the RLB relay second coil connection is wired to the second track via a 1N4001 diode. The diode makes the
RLB relay negative voltage sensing. See the circuit diagram at Fig 8.

The majority of the circuit is wired using hard drawn silver plated copper wire. A useful source is a hobby shop that sells DIY
jewellery kits. The silver plated wire is soldered directly to the relay contacts, thus avoiding possible damp problems on sockets
that might otherwise arc when RF is applied. The two feeds from the SO239 use thicker brown coloured 2mm enamelled wire.

Six stainless steel 5mm bolts with solder tags are provided for connections to the three open loop dipoles.

Note: During Bench Testing, the power was applied via temporary red & black wires without the RF choke & capacitors fitted.

Points to apply
8mH RF Temporarily securing the relay box
Choke
temporary to the fishing pole
power

FIG 7 shows how the Relay Switch box is

temporarily secured with two white tie-wraps on to
the shorter 5th fibreglass fishing pole.

During antenna element tuning, power to the

relays can be provided using twin speaker wire
from a 12v car battery at the base of the mast.
The polarity is changed by swapping the crocodile
clips on the battery terminals.

The RF Choke is required when power is supplied

FIG 7 via the coax feeder from the shack.
G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0
4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

The Open Loop OCFD Antenna Controller & Mast Head Relay Circuits

Explanatory diagram
for antenna
20m”a” 17m “a” 15m “a” connections
Transceiver Antenna

0.01uF
SO239 SO239 SO239
500v
Short length of RG58 Antenna Coax Mini-8
RLA-1 RLB-1 “a”
50Ω Open Loop
DC block OCFD
0.02uF 1kV RLA-2 RLB-2 “b”
RFC PCB RFC
8mH Square 8mH Insulator

0.01uF Polyester 0.005uF Disc Ceramic 20m “b” 17m “b” 15m “b”
250v 500v Fig 6A
0.005uF 0.005uF
Disc Ceramic Disc Ceramic
Polarity 500v 500v
reversing
switch
1N4002

SW1A SW1B RLB

RLA
2 2 Note RLA & RLB are 12volt
1N5401
DPCO contacts
rated at 5A

+ -
12v DC
Antenna Control Box Mast Head Antenna Switch

Fig 8

The controller in Fig 9 uses a 2 pole three position

switch.
PCB RF
Two LEDs are provided as power indicators for the 17m Choke
& 15m positions.

A long piece of single sided copper laminate fits tightly

between the two corner pillars on one side is used to
provide a 0v connection for the decoupling capacitors.

A 1N5401 - 3A power diode ensures that the correct

polarity is fed to the change over switch to make certain
the correct antennas are selected by the control switch.

The 8mH RF Choke, which decouples the DC power

supply from the transmitter RF, can be seen in Fig9 .
The RF choke’s reactance is >700K ohms @14 MHz

The prototype’s DC blocking capacitor uses three Pillars

ceramic low tolerance 0.01uF 1000v capacitors wired in
parallel, because a high quality 0.02uF was not available.
This capacitor’s reactance is < 0.5 Ohms @ 14 MHz. Fig 9 The OL-OFCD Controller

A small PCB square provides a junction point for the DC

blocking capacitor, RF choke and one end of the Mil
Spec RG58.

G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0

 4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

Assembling the COLA and initial tuning

Cut the dipole wires slightly longer than the measurements in Table 1 on Page 1. Assemble the dipole to the dimension shown,
letting any excess hang under the heavy duty tie wraps as shown in Fig 11 below.

Secure each dipole onto the fishing poles, with UV resistant tie wraps. Ensure each corner is approximately an equal distance
from the mast - See page 1. Use string attached to mast to help mark the wire fixing points on the poles.

Attach the 15m element first. Secure the feed point ends on relay box with “M5” bolts

Erect the antenna at the proposed operating height, then using minimum power determine the dipole’s resonant frequency. This
will be below 21MHz, trim the tails by 1⁄2” (1cm) at a time until it is resonant at 21MHz.

Note the SWR value and trim the short wire by another ½” (1cm). This is see what difference this makes to the SWR.
N.B. To increase the impedance of the feed point, the shorter wire needs to be trimmed, but this increases the resonant
frequency, therefore it will be necessary to add the off-cut to the longer wire to compensate.

Conversely adding wire to the longer end will lower the impedance and also lower the frequency, therefore it is necessary to
trim the shorter wire by the same amount. Fig 11 clearly shows the 15m element required two minor adjustment to obtain the
optimum SWR .

This process is repeated for the 17m and 20m elements and will require using the fine-tuning process described below.

However, since there is a slight interaction between the concentric elements, the tuning needs to be rechecked , starting with
the 15m element, then 17m and finally the 20m element to achieve near unity SWRs.

Fine Tuning the Off Centre Fed Open Loop Dipoles.

The RSARS MMANA-GAL Study Of The Open Loop Dipole

shows that the impedance changes fairly sharply away from the
centre of the antenna i.e. a change of 2.5cm makes a significant
shift in frequency and the SWR , as the can be seen in Fig 10.

By careful trimming SWR values on all the three bands of <1.2:1

is achievable.

The 10m band SWR is dependant on the 20m element’s tuning. Fig 10

17m
The fine tuning is achieved by altering the length of short tails
hanging from heavy duty 6" (15cm) long tie wrap insulator. It’s 100 kHz
useful to use electricians insulated “choc block” connectors to change
add lengths of single core 2.5 mm wire salvaged from mains
grey power cable “twin & earth.
15m
N.B. The insulator length of 6” (15cm) was chosen so that any
short tail wires have a very weak capacitive coupling, i.e. in that
they do not form an open line tuning stub and affect the tuning
Fig 11
of the COLA.
G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0
4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS FROM THE RSARS STUDY OF THE OPEN LOOP ANTENNA

The MMANA-GAL antenna model results in Fig 12 shown below are an extract of a RSARS Study of the Open Loop
OCFD. These indicate that very good SWR values are possible at the modest height of 5m.
However, Fig 13 indicates that elevating a “tuned “ antenna by another 1.5m, makes the situation slightly worse.

The OPEN LOOP OCFD Results with the antennas at 5m height above average ground
Fig 12

The OPEN LOOP OCFD Results with the antennas at 6.5m height above average ground
Fig 13

The MMANA-GAL “View” function “Figs 14-16 show that the majority of the far field exists in the wire, to which the
source is connected. Moreover, the currents shown in each Fig indicate that there is little interaction with the other two
COLA elements. The wire with the source is the dominant radiating element.

However, models are not perfect and practical tests are necessary to evaluate an antenna properly.

20m Element currents 17m Element currents 15m Element currents

Fig 14 Fig 15 Fig16

=Source

G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0

 4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

COMPARING THE COLA OPERATING AT TWO

HEIGHTS WITH A FD3 ( 40-20&10m)
Results 16th May 2014; 1845hrs BST
Sunny all day, av. temp 22C, ground fairly dry,
with little wind, test area on a 7m x 7m lawn.

20m
The COLA tests employed self-supporting 1.5"
Fig17 (40mm) diam aluminium mast sections. A screw
into the ground washing carousel adapter
supported the base of the mast.
The two test heights of 5m and 7m were chosen
because the mast can be left self-supporting even
in moderate winds i.e. no need for any steadying
guys.
Figs 17-20 show the superimposed traces for the
two heights. The red trace is for the COLA at a
height of 5M and the white trace for 7m.
15m
During each test the COLA was also compared
Fig18 with an FD3 OCFD (40-20&10M) erected in a
straight line at approximately 7-8m height. For the
comparisons on the 17m and 15m the FD3
required the aid of a tuner.

THE RESULTS
The results for the 20m,15m and 10m bands
show an improvement in the SWR at 7m, but on
17m there is slight increase in SWR. However,
17m the results also indicate that the COLA can
operate efficiently without the aid of tuner at both
Fig19 heights since the SWR was < 1.22 : 1 or better.
Several DX QSOs on each band proved the
effectiveness of the antenna at both heights. This
also proved the antennas omni-directional
capability - See Table 2.
This final check demonstrated that the COLA
performed very similarly to the FD3, with S-meter
readings differing by no more than one S-point at
worse.

10m

Fig20
G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0
 4-BAND COLA ANTENNA (20-17-15-10m) – G8ODE
(Concentric Open Loop Antenna Fed Off-Centre )

TABLE 3 – SUMMARY OF COLA ANTENNA TEST RESULTS

NOTE.

THE BERKSHIRE TEST SITE:

The QTH is in an urban location is surrounded by trees and 2 storey houses. The east facing rear garden is approximately
11m x 20m. The QTH has houses immediately to the north and south each with 10-13m tall trees in their respective gardens. To the
east is the adjoining garden of a dormer bungalow some 30m away. To the front of the bungalow, facing the main road is a row of
20m tall California conifers. The COLA antenna was deployed at 5m height on a self-supporting aluminium mast above a garden
lawn.

During the test period there have been some extremes in conditions, from very heavy rain falls that caused the water table to rise by
1.5m and detuned the COLA slightly, and also some periods of increased solar activity that resulted in enhanced conditions on 10m.

My special thanks go to Barry G3YEU for helping me publish this article

G8ODE Design Published 28 May 2014 issue 1.0