Bi-directional Two wire Beverage

Bi-directional Two wire Beverage by OK2ZAW

The beverage is a long wire antenna installed very close to the ground. The antenna should be longer than 1 wavelength and installed at a height of less than 0,05 wavelength above ground.
Beverage antennas provide one of the least expensive and most reliable ways to improve DX capabilities on the low frequencies.
With careful attention to design and construction, a single beverage antenna can be made to cover two directions with excellent performance over a very wide frequency range. These are two beverage antennas receiving in opposing directions to share the same space.
The transformer at the end of the beverage is designed to match impedance of the antenna.
A two-wire bi-directional beverage requires the antenna element to operate a balanced transmission line, as well as a conventional long wire antenna. The parallel wire line used to construct the antenna must be excited under near-perfect balanced transmission line conditions. This is why each of the parallel transmission line wires must be parallel to the ground. A line should not be constructed in a vertical fashion, using single support poles with one wire under the other. The closer the wire spacing of the line, the lower the impedance of the line, and the less critical installation-related unbalances become. The higher you install the line above ground, the less unbalance any unequal coupling to earth creates.
Source: W8JI, ON4UN

NOTE: TWO coax output beverage antenna works right only, when both ports are loaded with right impedance on the same band. It means that you cannot leave second port open or short! Also if you use first port on 160m and second on 80m than second port have to have load impedance on 160m and first port on 80m. Picture. Right RX antenna switch

Main functions:

RX antenna

Broadband 0.2 MHz to 30 MHz (optimal 0.2 to 14 MHz)
Bi-directional (Reversible) beverage antenna
Low noise
Very good F/B ratio
Twinlead or open wire line
Classic or BOG construction
50/75 ohm feed line version
Antenna impedance - assembled version: 75, 150, 450, 600 Ohms
Isolated ground to prevent common-mode noise
Common-mode choke at each output

Two output versions
1. Switchable directions to one coax
2. Two direction = two coax outputs Each direction is one output.
Two constructio versions
1. Antenna element in the air
2. Antenna element on ground = BOG more info in WiKi
Single or two coax outputs.
Free configuration for your beverage parameters (KIT version).
Transformer calculator in wiki.
One coax version with switchable direction by positive voltage (+12V) (or AC) - negative voltage on request.
Common-mode coax choke included. Compare to others on market
Electrostatic and HV protection with glim (neon) lamps (> 65V AC).
Current protection (100mA) in antenna element.
One coax version: controlled over the coax feed line.
Two coax outputs version: one coax for one direction.
Stainless connections screws and nuts.
Quality PTFE SO-239 or F connectors. N, BNC on request.
IP56 box. Recommended to protect it against water and snow.
Size 10x10 cm (feeder), 5x6 cm (terminator).
Available as

KIT - all parts + PCB + box
PCB - feeder + terminator
Assembled for:

Frequently Asked Question at manual page
Nice article about the Bi-dir principles by ZL3IX

Parameters:

Feed line impedance 50 or 75 Ohm
Antenna impedance depends on assembled version: 75, 150, 450, 600 Ohms
Common-mode choke isolation more than 30 dB
Current protection > 100mA and Voltage protection > 65V
Element in air or BOG
One coax output with internal relay switch in feeder
Two coax outputs for both directions at the same time - SO2R or Multi
One coax version switch needs + 12 V / 0.1 A (or AC 12V). Switching with positive voltage control
Antenna reception - REVERSE direction with 0 V, STRAIGHT with +12V

Use:

Low bands RX low noise antenna
Two directions with one antenna

Versions:

KIT or Assembled

Example with Bias-tee AC/DC BOX and 4-way switch:

Example with Bias-tee DC (AC/DC) BOX and RX preamp box (with front-end protections):

Download

Files and Wiki Manuals for older versions
One coax switchable	sch	eagle398
Two coax	sch	eagle328
Terminator	sch	eagle311
MANUAL / WIKI version < 2.3 (2021)		WiKi
MANUAL / WIKI version > year 2022		WiKi

We believe open source is a better way of doing things. View and download the Shield Schematic and PCB Kicad/Eagle CAD files, LibreCAD .DXF, or Inkscape .SVG files. The hardware designs are released under the Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic

User review

Imanol EC2DX (CQWW CW 2022) 2coax version, 150 ohm antenna line in the air: The beverages work GREAT!!!!!! No noise on them, but the best was the -diagram-, in my case, if I selected the NA beverage, it eliminates the signals coming from EU, nice F/B of around 20db but better F/S of at least 25/30db!!!!!! Its normal??????? Both of them are about 250m, in the ground just aluminium pipe of around 1m, no radials, the ground was complety wet and mud.

SP3GEM: Jan, Thank you for Bi-directional Beverage, it arrived quickly. After assembling it, I am very happy and it works great. Everything is made in high quality.From my side, not everything is ok, we have winter but I already have f / b over 25 db. Do you know what the optimal length is for this antenna. Currently, my antenna is 160 long. Today I ordered another one (order for Pawel Smoczyk).

SP3GEM: Hi Jan, I was building the first beverages in 1983. I've built a couple of hundreds, maybe more, in different configurations. I think I know everything about these antenna type. Beverage antenna works fine on all low bands, still there is some optimization for particular band (like length or height). In 1999 I built a set of beverages for 160m and won CQWW SSB. I was also building bidirectional beverages but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I reluctantly tried your solutions and was nicely surprised. Both directions work correctly, the F/B is great. I'll not give you exact numbers cause it depends on antenna realization. How parallel are wires to the ground and to each other and even the wire diameter... After so many years I know everything about my location ground parameters. Your workmanship is perfect. I don't know anyone doing it better, it looks like it's not possible to do better. I have 351 DXCC on 80m, missed a couple of them as they are now deleted. I also worked the missing ones but from Venezuela where I worked as a university teacher in the electromagnetic fields area. Now I only need P5 on low bands. and see a problem with it. Seems only the DXCC committee believes in the genuity of last P5 activation. 73 de sp3gem

Ben Korbeeck, Dalfsen, NL: Hello Jan, Just to let you know the parcel with BOG-kit arrived OK yesterday. It took me 2 hours to build the boxes drilling etc. No problems encountered hi! Today I went into the woods to connect it to my 300 meter BOG - formely connected to an UnUn transformer 450 Ohm and common earth - no choke and end resistor of 560 Ohm. The difference was about 5 db better noisefloor (same signal strength) on the high end of the mediumwave, 12 db on the low part. Amazing difference on long wave though: noisefloor now -133 dBm, which means I can receive Romania on 153 kHz in daytime. When a question: how low (in kHz) does the transformer goes? Should it be possible to receive Alexanderson on 14.7 kHz? In wintertime I use real beverages, so I come back to you shortly! Very satisfied with your kit and compliments - good quality all over. Regards, Ben Korbeeck, Dalfsen, NL.

OE2CRM

EA6VQ

OT5A

Dennis KA0SWR