Finer details of construction of fan dipole for four bands

I had a 40/10m fan dipole with unconventional cone like mounting and I wanted to add elements for 20m. Brought down the existing antenna and unscrewed the 2.5 sq mm insulated copper wires from the 1:1 current balun a the feed point. Cleaned the wires using the sharp edge of a small pair of scissors as that was the one which came in handy. A lot of dust had collected over the bare end of the wires over the past one year and possibly some oxidation and changes due to the heavy rainy seasons last year.

Fixed the ends of wires for 40, 20 and 10m to a piece of electrical wiring channel in such a way that they would fan out from the feed point on the 1:1 balun. Black wire is for 20m, which was newly added and the green wires are for 40 and 10m bands. I had to open the balun cover by removing two screws as the bolt for fixing the antenna elements kept on turning without unscrewing the nut. Used a star edged screwdriver on the inner part to keep the bolt steady while fixing the antenna elements. You can see the inner structure of the balun with toroid and windings which appear to be of RG316. SO239 connector fixed to the balun box and RG213 with PL259 screwed in can be seen on one side.

Wires were fixed in a similar fashion on the other side as well, fanning out from the balun, giving it the name fan dipole. Balun had been purchased from a VU ham last year and is still intact after the rainy seasons and the bright sun of our tropical climate. The stainless steel hook in the center is used for fixing the balun to the central mast in case of my inverted V mounting. I had to remove the nylon thread seen here later as it snapped on trying to pull up the balun, the onslaught of solar ultraviolet radiation over the last year!

This is final version of the fan dipole spread on my terrace, with separators in place. As it was the first attempt and I had scarcity of separators in my store, the number of separators is limited. Maybe I will add more at a later stage during the tuning process, if the small number is not enough to keep the wires separated after mounting. I have already posted the details about the mounted antenna earlier and had not posted details of construction then as I was quite tired after the couple of days’ work on the terrace, mostly in bright sunlight. I do have video clips of SWR tests across the bands, which I shall post if anyone is interested in viewing them!