Dipole out of coax

[Grump]

I know there is plans out there to make one out of coax and would it be better than wire

['Doc]

That just depends on what you mean by 'better', and how the thing is made, sort of.
There are several ways of making a dipole out of coax. One aspect of it is that the conductor will be larger, contributing something to making it more 'broadbanded'. That just isn't going to make much difference. For a larger conductor to make any appreciable differences like that, that 'larger' has to be 'huge'. The difference between about a 1/16" and about 1/2" just isn't enough to matter at 27 Mhz. At 270 Mhz, yes, but not at 27 Mhz. Deals with how large a percentage of a wave length that diameter is. At 27 Mhz you are talking about 'feet', not fractions of an inch, or inches.
Using coax can change the 'shape' of a usable dipole. One way is by making the feed line come out one 'end' instead of the middle, makes it easier to sting up vertically. There are some "but's" with that. Not that 'impossible' to get around, but still there.
Another method is typically called a 'bazzooka'. It's benefit is an apparent broadbandedness due to how the impedance of the input stays about the same over a wider range than a typical wire dipole. There's a 'catch', naturally. As the thing get's further from it's desined resonance point (what it's 'cut' for), it's efficiency drops. The apparent impedance, the SWR stays about the same, but the efficiency goes to pot, just doesn't radiate as much as it will at the resonant point. (There's ALWAYS a price to pay.)
So... ?
- 'Doc

['Doc]

Oh. There's also a difference in how much weight you can/want to deal with hanging. Wire weighs less than coax.
- 'Doc

[HomerBB]

Not so sure it was a dipole, but I once peeled a little over a 1/4 wavelength of braid from the center wire of rg58 and ran it up through a joint of 1/2" cpvc sticking out the far end of the pipe through a cap that had a hole drilled in the center for that purpose. I left the braid out because that's what I was told i should do. Attached coax to it, trimmed the coax center at the capped end of the pipe to bring the SWR down. It worked. I hauled it around in my work vehicle and strung it up over trees limbs at job sites so as to have better communication with my home base and friends.

If memory serves me well, I may have wrapped the braid around the extra foot of the 10' joint of cpvc. I fed the center wire into the pipe from a hole drilled into the side of the pipe a foot from the end. After peeling the core from the braid I found the braid too frgile to let dangle down without support.

[NCMidnight]

Ive made them from both 10g copper wire and RG58 coax. I can not tell any difference at all other then not having to worry about the Neg. braid on solid wire stretching, but the coax seems more limber and easy to deal with. The main thing I was told to remember when using coax was to "make sure the end of the stripped portion of the coax where the insulation ends and the bare braid begins is water tight sealed". I have one made of wire hanging from the ceiling in my garage right now and do use with a barefoot radio on occasion for DX for a change from the vertical. I never realized the difference until I tried them side by side.. but it is a very noticeable in my situation, at least on the RX side.

[Grump]

I was thinking of making what is called the double bazooka dipole heard they were better than a regular dipole. Just wanting to try

[Night Crawler]

A double bazooka works well as a single band antenna with low noise on receive. It's broadband and won't radiate harmonics which will help with tvi.