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Which side of this dipole is ground? (programming.dev)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
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My guessThe left sort of looks like the outside of the cable so I think that's ground.

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[–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

A dipole doesn’t have a ground plane like some other antennas. A dipole is a balanced antenna and both sides work off of each other equally.

With that said, this one is probably used for receiving and if one end is connected to the electrical ground (different thing from antenna ground plane) then it’s going to be the left side with the uninsulated wire most likely.

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    • [+] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Let me rephrase (your answer may be the same). I know with some antennas there is a "ground plane" type of element that should be on the bottom. For a vertical dipole is this not the case?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You do seem to be right. It should not matter in theory, but it may be better for the one connected to the center (right on this image) to be up.

    For vertical polarization, in theory it does not matter which way around you orient the antenna as long as it's vertical. However in practice, you may get slightly better results by having the element connected to the center coax conductor pointing UP.

    Source: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/using-our-new-dipole-antenna-kit/

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Weird that they don't elaborate. I flipped it last night and it seemed marginally better this way, so maybe there is some truth to it. Take this with a truck load of salt as it wasn't any sort of controlled experiment at all.

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    • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Looks like the left is the shielding on the cable so probably ground.

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    [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    The side with the ground wire (shield), so left side on the photo.

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