Körner 15.11

Peter Körner designed this Yagi array with 15 elements on a 3.73-meter (147″) boom. It uses five reflectors, a horizontal folded dipole, and a halfwave coaxial balun. Unlike other high-performance designs, the 15.11 has no phasing lines that can induce current in the boom and degrade the pattern.

This overhead view shows the horizontal folded dipole and nearby directors. The driven element is long, the two dipole currents are unequal, and their relative magnitude and phase change with frequency. This varies the critical coupling to the closely spaced first director across the FM band, a neat trick without moving parts. In this particular design, the feedpoint must be at the forward conductor.

Peter Körner testing a prototype antenna at VHF Teknik AB in Trelleborg, Sweden.

This shows the connections for the feedline and halfwave coaxial balun, which has negligible loss. The folded dipole is temporarily positioned on the boom without its weatherproof enclosure.

This shows how the 15mm × 5mm folded dipole conductors join at the ends. The all-dielectric production element mount on the right differs from the prototype mount that used a metallic clamp.

Sven Jacobson of VHF Teknik AB measured this SWR curve for a production antenna (model FM15.11) with an HP 8714B network analyzer.

Modeling Results

I modeled the antenna with the AO-Pro 8.50 Antenna Optimizer program. Below are calculated performance figures for a segmentation density of 50 segments per halfwave. Mismatch loss is due to SWR. Wire loss is due to conductor resistance. Mismatched gain is forward gain including wire and mismatch losses. F/R is the ratio of forward power to that of the worst backlobe in the rear half-plane. The SWR reference impedance is 300Ω.

88.000 MHz:   Impedance         301 - j26 ohms
              SWR                 1.09
              Mismatch Loss       0.01 dB
              Wire Loss           0.01 dB
              Mismatched Gain     7.88 dBd
              F/R                30.27 dB

93.000 MHz:   Impedance         303 - j35 ohms
              SWR                 1.12
              Mismatch Loss       0.01 dB
              Wire Loss           0.01 dB
              Mismatched Gain     8.61 dBd
              F/R                35.31 dB

98.000 MHz:   Impedance         289 - j25 ohms
              SWR                 1.10
              Mismatch Loss       0.01 dB
              Wire Loss           0.02 dB
              Mismatched Gain     9.37 dBd
              F/R                34.02 dB

103.000 MHz:  Impedance         279 + j67 ohms
              SWR                 1.27
              Mismatch Loss       0.06 dB
              Wire Loss           0.04 dB
              Mismatched Gain     9.43 dBd
              F/R                32.55 dB

108.000 MHz:  Impedance         282 + j80 ohms
              SWR                 1.32
              Mismatch Loss       0.09 dB
              Wire Loss           0.25 dB
              Mismatched Gain     7.79 dBd
              F/R                28.01 dB

Patterns

Antenna File

Korner 15.11 Yagi
Free Space Symmetric
98.000 MHz
18 6061-T6 wires, meters
1	0.0    -1.04    0.0         0.0     1.04    0.0          0.01
1	0.0    -1.04   -0.35        0.0     1.04   -0.35         0.01
1	0.0    -1.04    0.35        0.0     1.04    0.35         0.01
1	0.11   -1.00   -0.73        0.11    1.00   -0.73         0.01
1	0.11   -1.00    0.73        0.11    1.00    0.73         0.01
1	0.565  -0.82    0.0         0.565   0.82    0.0          0.01148
1	0.595  -0.82    0.0         0.595   0.82    0.0          0.01148
1	0.595  -0.82    0.0         0.565  -0.82    0.0          0.015
1	0.595   0.82    0.0         0.565   0.82    0.0          0.015
1	0.68   -0.663   0.0         0.68    0.663   0.0          0.01
1	0.79   -0.669   0.0         0.79    0.669   0.0          0.01
1	1.01   -0.657   0.0         1.01    0.657   0.0          0.01
1	1.3    -0.632   0.0         1.3     0.632   0.0          0.01
1	1.615  -0.637   0.0         1.615   0.637   0.0          0.01
1	2.045  -0.625   0.0         2.045   0.625   0.0          0.01
1	2.475  -0.629   0.0         2.475   0.629   0.0          0.01
1	3.01   -0.629   0.0         3.01    0.629   0.0          0.01
1	3.73   -0.578   0.0         3.73    0.578   0.0          0.01
1 source
Wire 7, center

The 11.48mm diameters are cylindrical equivalents of the 15mm × 5mm rectangular folded dipole conductors.


March 19, 201088–108 MHz