Folded Counterpoise (FCP)

160M Folded Counterpoise

This is your standard inverted L setup that most of us use on 160m and other bands

using a standard radial system.

However

Guy Olinger – K2AV, has created an alternative – the folded counterpoise (FCP).

An FCP is not magic. It has no gain.
An FCP improves an antenna system by replacing more loss with less loss. Some have been able to erect better wires in the air because the small size of the FCP allowed better placement of the antenna.
Such a multiple factor improvement project sometimes produces startling changes. Of course, the biggest improvement is that the FCP made possible and fit in even in a small property.
Follow these instructions EXACTLY.

K2AV folded counterpoise
The FCP is fed with an ISOLATION TRANSFORMER….NOT a balun.


K2AV isolation transformer

K2AV explained FCP operation in a 2012 National Contest Journal article this way “…the fields from the folded wire were
cancelling by the fold, producing sharply reduced fields at the ground only 1/8 wavelength from center. The losses in the folded radial due
to induced ground currents seemed proportional to the square of the field strength at the ground below, summed beneath all
of the wire, a smaller traverse equaling less loss. It was a short mental leap to a single 50 meter (5/16 wavelength) wire folded twice to traverse a mere 20 meter (66 feet), with the sharply reduced fields at ground now just 10 meter(1/16 wavelength) from center. When we installed this as a counterpoise at W0UCE – at 2.5 meter(8 feet) above ground – Jack started being heard well on 160 from his small lot using his smallish inverted L.”

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