Terminated Folded Dipole

T2FD -- a match for any antenna

Tests were conducted at the home of Fred Carlisle, a DXer from rural Yelm, Washington. Nearby his home is a large dairy, whose processing equipment operates day and night and generates some amount of electrical interference. The noise was rarely audible on the T2FD, yet signal strengths were comparable to (or better than) the other antennas in use, on a range of frequencies:

The 500 ft. and 50 ft. antennas were switched in and out of the receiver's high impedance input, the T2FD fed the 50 ohm coax input. The receiver used was a JRC NRD525 with a custom, highly accurate analog Smeter. The meter is calibrated to the industry standard Sunits/microvolts scale.

As the results show, the T2FD antenna did not begin to drop off in performance until down in the 120 meterband. This is well below the 60 meterband design frequency of this particular T2FD.

FREQ/STN	T2FD (NW-SE)	50' (N-S)	500' (E-W)
17680 RNZ	S9	S8-S9 w/buzz	S9 w/buzz
17700 RM	S7S8	S7 w/buzz	S7 w/buzz
17795 RA	S8	S6-S7 w/buzz	S7 w/buzz
15440 RBI	S6S7	S6 w/loud buzz	S6 w/loud buzz
15435 BSKSA	S7S8	S7 w/loud buzz	S7 w/loud buzz
15330 RAI	S5-S6	S5 w/loud buzz	S6 w/loud buzz
12085 RD	S8-S9	S8S9 slight noise	S8-S9 slight noise
11955 RJ	S9+10dB	S9-C9S8	S9+10dB
11940 RJ	S8	S9	S9
11505 RB	S4-S5	S4 moderate noise	S4-S5 slight noise
9895 RM	S9+10dB	S7	S9
9425 VoG	S6-S7	S5	S6
9375 RT	S8	S6 slight noise	S7 slight noise
7355 WYFR	S8-S9	S6-S7	S7
7335 CHU	S8-S9	S6	S7S8
7255 VoN	S7-S8 slight noise	S5-S6 mod. noise	S6S7 slight noise
6165 RN	S9+15dB	S9+10dB	S9
6150 Rl	S7-S8	S7	S6
6135.4 RFO	S7S8	S6 some noise	S6
5030 TBC	S5 slight noise	barely audible	S5 slight noise
5000 WWV	S9+10dB	S9+10dB	S9
4985 R.Bras.Cent.	S5	S5	S6
4915 Anhanguera	S4S5	S5 noisy	S5 some noise
4885 O. del M.	S6	S6 slight noise	S6 slight noise
4865 L.V. de C.	S6	S6-S7	S5-S6
4765 RM	S7	S7 slight noise	S6S7
3990 VOA Liberia	S4-S5	S5	S5
3975 BBC	S5	S5	S5
3330 CHU	S5 strong noise	S5 strong noise	S5 strong noise
3385 Rebelde	S5	S5 some noise	S6 some noise
2500 WWV	S6	S6-S7 some noise	S8
1610 TIS stn.	S5	barely audible	S8S9

T2FD excellent receiving antenna

From: Frank Gilmore, K0JPJ
Date: May 29, 1993
Original source: Fidonet's shortwave conference

I used a T2FD in 1961. At that time I had lots of land to experiment with antennas and each weekend the local gang would come over and we would put up another one.
W8JK antennas were my favorite wire antennas although they were rather awesome when built for 40... also had lots of wind resist. and the smallest ice storm would bring them down.

The T2FD gave a good accounting of itself. If I remember correctly I built mine from an article in either CQ or the CQ Antenna Manual. I don't recall it ever appearing in the ARRL Antenna Handbooks. It may have been in Bill Orr's Radio Handbook at one time.

It was an excellent receiving antenna for SWL use. After I dropped traffic nets and did little but chase DX on the higher freqs with a beam I used the T2FD on a Hammarlund HQ-180AXC to monitor commercial RTTY.