The cobra antenna is a folded dipole, they took 3 wire ribbon cable, and the 
ladder line connects to 1 wire, which goes out about 70 feet, then it's 
connected to the center wire which comes back to the center insulator, and 
is shorted to the third wire and goes back out again, and they do this for 
each side of the ladder line. Both sides are like 70 feet for a total of 140 
feet with 100 feet of ladder line included so you need to put a ballem at 
the end of that to run coax to your station, unless you want to run ladder 
line all the way in. I guess when you add up the wire, it's 3 times that 140 
feet though with it being like ribbon cable, I don't know if that changes 
anything or not with it. The original design used Romex, but being single 
strand wire, that broke too often but this design looks to me, like it's 
rather well built and very easy to make on your own. It's a lot lighter than 
the g5RV, everyone I know who has them likes them a lot. I'm looking forward 
to getting mine up.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 1:43 PM
Subject: Re: Cobra antennas (was Re: Amplifiers)


> what is the difference between the g5RV and the cobra antennas?
> I know how a g5RV is designed, but how is the cobra designed?
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve Dresser" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 11:04 AM
> Subject: Cobra antennas (was Re: Amplifiers)
>
>
>>
>> Howard,
>>
>> I've been using the Cobra Ultralite Senior for almost three years, and
> like
>> it very much.  Mine plays very well on 80 and 40, and somewhat well on 20
>> and 17.  I've tried it on 10, and I know it works, but don't really know
> how
>> well as I haven't seen much 10-meter activity here in New England.  On 
>> 80,
>> where it seems to work best, people give me the same S-meter readings as 
>> I
>> give them, which I realize isn't necessarily a good indication of how
> things
>> are working.  On some of the other bands, I tend to hear better than
> people
>> hear me, which makes me suspect that maybe the antenna isn't working as
> well
>> as it should.
>>
>> It's an easy antenna to put up, and I have mine strung between two trees,
>> about 20 feet off the ground.  It might work better if I could raise the
>> center up another 30 feet or so, but I haven't figured out a good way to
>> support the center.  Raising the center might also make it play better on
>> the higher frequencies, but I won't know unless and until I try it.  I'm
>> quite sure I could do better with a beam on a tower, but I have to say
> that
>> this antenna does quite well for a one-size-fits-all antenna.
> Incidentally,
>> I haven't had to repair it even though we get some 50MPH winds during the
>> winter.
>>
>> Steve
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Howard Kaufman" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 18:30
>> Subject: Re: Amplifiers
>>
>>
>> > John I am very interested in the cobra, what do you think of yours?
>> > I'd like to use it on 160 through 10.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
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> 5:38 AM
>>
>>
>