ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would wish to express our warmest gratitude to the following for their unending support extended in the realization of this project. First, to the Father Almighty for the courage and wisdom bestowed upon us. To Engr. Oliver Cagumbay, for sharing us his knowledge and guidance for this project; To our dear parents, whose love and support made this endeavor possible; To our other instructors, for sharing us their brilliant ideas and for their words of encouragement; To our group mates, whom we shared laughter and knowledge while doing this project. Thank you and God bless.

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DEDICATION

This endeavor is sincerely dedicated To God, To our professor, To our parents, To the evaluators, To ourselves, & To the future beneficiaries of this project.

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INTRODUCTION
Today, television is one of the reliable sources of information, news and trends about the society, economy and many others. Due to this, engineers always seek ways on how to improve the television especially with its signal reception through an antenna. Antenna, also referred to as an aerial, device used to radiate and receive radio waves through the air or through space. Antennas are used to send radio waves to distant sites and to receive radio waves from distant sources. There are many kinds of antennas used for television reception and one of this is the stacked dipole antenna. A stacked dipole antenna is made up of a multiple number of dipoles mounted in a common structure with their axis arranged in one straight line. The dipole elements are always driven in phase otherwise the array simply becomes a harmonic type antenna. A stacked dipole array is a broadside radiator, meaning the direction of maximum radiation is at right angles to the line of the antenna. When mounted vertically, it radiates an omni-directional pattern. One advantage of this design is its ability to attain high gain. When dipole elements are stacked collinearly, the power gain increases in direct proportion to the number of dipoles used. Obviously, this type of antenna is limited to fixed installation only because of its mechanical construction.

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OBJECTIVES

To come up with best results the following objectives are set: to expand our knowledge about antennas through design and practical applications to have a clear television reception using stacked dipole antenna to construct an efficient stacked dipole antenna with a minimum budget to obtain the lowest signal to wave ratio

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SPECIFICATION AND BILL OF MATERIALS

This model is dimensioned to operate in the frequency of 177 MHz. It has two identical dipoles fed with a coaxial phasing line or 'harness'. Each dipole element is tuned by a Gamma matching system. Materials Needed Most of the materials needed to build the stacked dipole antenna are the same with those needed for a ground plane antenna except for the mounting channel. The mounting channel for stacked dipole antenna is shorter being only 8 inches long. Additionally, another long square channel is needed to mount the two dipole elements into a single mast. Also, a system of phasing harness made of coax cable is required to feed the two dipoles simultaneously. The materials needed for stacked dipole antenna are as follows: Quantity 1 pc. 6 pcs. 2 pcs 1 pc. 4 pcs. 4pcs. 4 pcs. 2 pcs. Description RG-6 Coaxial Cable
BNC VHF male connector

Dimensions 6.75 meters long

Price(PhP) 101 120 40 30

BNC female connector BNC T connector Bolt with hex nuts Bolt with hex nuts Self tapping screws Self tapping screws 1long x 1/8 d 2 long x 1/8 d 1/4 long x 1/2 d 1/2 long x 1/2 d

6 16 4 10

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1 pc. 1 pc. 8 pcs. 6 pc.

Aluminum tube
Aluminum square channel

6.3 feet long x 3/8 d 1 x 1 x 111 5/8 d 10 long

27 110 16 30 510

washers Nylon strap TOTAL

*d stands for diameter

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CONSTRUCTION
STACKED DIPOLE ANTENNA (2 BAY)

Figure 1: Stacked dipole Antenna (2 Bay)

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COMPUTATIONS a. Length of the Dipole Element: = 177MHz = 0.5 D = 0.5 936 177

= . = .

Figure 2: Dipole element

b. Spacing of the Two Dipole Elements: S = 0.25 S = 0.25 936 177

= . 12 = .

Figure 3: Spacing between the dipole elements

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ACTUAL CONSTRUCTION

The radiator element is made from 3/8 diameter aluminum tube cut to a length of 31.72881356 inches. Drill a hole (1/16" diameter) through and through at the middle of its length (see Figure 4).

31.72881356 15.86440678 1/16

Figure 4: Drilling a hole through the middle point of the radiator element.

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Next prepare the mounting channel by drilling a hole at one end (see Figure 5). The diameter of the hole must accommodate the aluminum tube that will be inserted into it. The hole is 3/8" and slightly oversized so that the tube will not be scratched upon insertion but not too loose as to sacrifice rigidity.

Figure 5: Preparing the mounting channel.

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Next, drill two small holes (1/16" diameter) at one side of the channel perpendicular to the axis of the bigger hole (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Drilling holes for the gamma mounting bracket.

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Drill a single 1/8" diameter hole at the other side opposite to the two small holes (1/16" diameter). See dimensions in the following illustration.

Figure 7: Drilling a single hole.

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Insert the aluminum tube through the large hole and align the hole at its middle part to the 1/8" diameter hole at the side of the channel (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: Inserting the aluminum tube into the mounting channel.

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Insert a self tapping screw through the side hole and forcibly screw it into the smaller hole of the tube inside (see Figure 9). Tighten the screw until the aluminum tube is rigidly held in the aluminum channel.

Figure 9: Locking the tube with a self tapping screw.

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Prepare the feedpoint angle bracket. The bracket is cut from a small strip of aluminum and bent into a right angle. An alternative method is to saw off a portion of a 1" x 3" rectangular aluminum channel. This will give you a more durable bracket with a near perfect angle.

Figure 10: Preparing the feedpoint bracket (gamma mounting bracket).

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Drill two small holes (1/8" diameter) at one side of the angle bracket. Drill another hole at the other side of the bracket. This lone hole must be large enough to accommodate the BNC female connector (see Figure 11).

Figure 11: Drilling mounting holes in the bracket.

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Attach the bracket into the mounting channel by screwing it with small self tapping screws (see Figure 12).

Figure 12: Fixing the feedpoint bracket on the mounting channel

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Insert the BNC female connector in an upside down position into the large hole of the feedpoint bracket and secure it with its nut (see Figure 13).

Figure 13: Installing the BNC connector into the feedpoint bracket.

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Next step is to prepare the tuning clamp and the gamma matching tube. First, fabricate a flat strip from the square aluminium channel (about 6 inches long). Cut about 6 inches of the flat strip and form both ends to a ring clamp by bending it around an aluminum tube. The ends must be formed to fit around the tube (see Figure 14).

Figure 14: Preparing the tuning clamp.

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Drill two holes (1/8" diameter) in the tuning clamp (see Figure 15).

Figure 15: Drilling holes in the tuning clamp.

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Insert the 6 inch long tube into one loop of the clamp and secure the clamp with a 1/8" x 3/8" stove bolt. Attach a nut to the bolt and tighten it lightly (see Figure 16). Don't tighten this bolt too much at this time!

Figure 16: Inserting the 6 inch long gamma tube into the tuning clamp.

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Waterproof the top end of the 6 inch gamma tube by inserting a substantial volume of cotton wad inside the open end. The cotton wad serves as a stopper for the epoxy. Place epoxy glue over the cotton wad inside. Let the epoxy set and dry (see Figure 17).

Figure 17: Sealing the top end of the gamma tube.

Instead of following the above procedure which is quite expensive and complicated, we used a plastic waterproofing for the gamma tube. This step is more simple and less expensive.

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Prepare the gamma match from a short length of RG- 6/U coaxial cable. Cut a 2 pieces of 6 inches long and remove its vinyl outer jacket and its braid. Cut away a small portion of the PE inner insulator exposing the copper conductor inside (see Figure 18).

Figure 18: Preparing the gamma match from a short length of RG-6/U.

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Solder the exposed copper conductor of the gamma match directly into the center pin of the BNC connector attached to the mounting channel.

Figure 19: Soldering the gamma match into the BNC connector.

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Next, carefully insert the free end of the tuning clamp into the radiator element (long tube) starting at the top end. As the tuning clamp is lowered down along with the gamma tube attached to it, insert the gamma match into the gamma tube (see Figure 20). Stop the gamma tube just about 1/2 inch above plane of the angle bracket or just enough for the gamma tube to cover the whole PE insulator. Insert a bolt into the tuning clamp attached around the radiator element and tighten it lightly enough to hold the gamma matching assembly in place.

Figure 20: Assembling the gamma tube into the gamma match.

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Mount the two dipoles to the aluminum supporting mast following the dimensions shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21: Mounting the dipoles to the aluminum mast.

Next, construct the phasing harness using RG-6/U coaxial cables and the appropriate connectors (see Figure 22)

31.79661017 5 meters
Figure 22: Constructing the phasing harness.

31.79661017

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Finally connect the phasing harness to the two dipole elements and secure it to the support mast with plastic binders (see Figure 23).

Figure 23: Connecting the phasing harness to the antenna

TUNING THE ANTENNA The tuning procedure for the antenna model SD-22 is similar to the procedure for tuning the antenna model DP-2. In tuning the SD-22 however, the two dipoles have to be tuned simultaneously. You have to do a lot of shuttling back and forth between the two dipoles before you can achieve a good match. If it is not practical to tune the antenna right in the main mast, then it can be tuned on the ground by placing it in a horizontal position with the dipoles facing upward. The antenna must be elevated to not less than 1 meter above the ground supported by non-metallic materials like wooden benches for example. To tune the antenna: move the tuning clamp and find the position where you can get the lowest SWR response for the center frequency and a relatively flat response curve over the entire band. Move the tuning clamp either lower or higher about 1/4 inch at a time (see Figure 24)

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Figure 24: Raising or lowering the tuning clamp to find the best match.

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CONCLUSION
After completing the design and construction of the antenna we can conclude that as the operating frequency of the antenna goes higher, the length of the dipole element gets smaller and so with the dipole element spacing. The power gain of a stacked dipole also increases in direct proportion to the number of dipole elements used. However, in order to construct a practical phasing harness, the number of dipole elements installed cannot be simply dictated by personal choice. The correct method is to double the original number of dipole units - meaning, it the original array has two dipole elements installed, then the next array must have four dipoles and the next must have eight dipoles and so on. Every time the number of dipole elements used is doubled, the power ratio is also doubled.
In tuning the stacked dipole antenna we must look for a place that has a nice Television signal reception to tune the antenna properly. The tuning clamp of the antenna must be adjusted upward or downward where we could attain the lowest standing wave ratio or SWR.

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