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fix: correct Moxon, EFHW, and fan dipole geometry#64

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EA1FUO merged 3 commits into
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fix/template-adjustments
May 30, 2026
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fix: correct Moxon, EFHW, and fan dipole geometry#64
EA1FUO merged 3 commits into
mainfrom
fix/template-adjustments

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@EA1FUO EA1FUO commented May 30, 2026

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Fixes geometry bugs in three antenna templates that produced badly wrong SWR. Each was verified against nec2c.

  • Moxon Rectangle — elements were ~1 wavelength wide instead of ~0.37 λ (garbled dimension coefficients, plus the full width was treated as a half-width), so SWR pegged >99 across the band. Replaced with L.B. Cebik's (W4RNL)
    MoxGen regression equations and corrected the full-width vs. half-width handling.
  • End-Fed Half-Wave — changing the far-end height stretched the wire (the horizontal span was fixed at the half-wave length), making the conductor longer than λ/2 and pushing resonance below the band. The radiator now stays a
    fixed half-wave and the far end tilts as a sloper. SWR at the design frequency drops from ~3.9 to ~1.5 (default 40 m).
  • Fan Dipole — only the lowest band worked; 20 m/10 m showed very high SWR. All element halves shared one feed node (so only the longest dipole was driven), the fan spread stretched each element, and end-effect shortening placed
    the coupled elements above their bands. Now every dipole is fed across its center via two feed terminals, each arm stays a fixed length, and the lengths compensate for fan coupling. nec2c: 20 m ~14 → 2.3, 10 m ~27 → 1.9 at band
    center.

Closes #63

EA1FUO added 3 commits May 29, 2026 15:38
…ions

The driven element and reflector were ~2.8x too wide (~1.04 wavelength
instead of ~0.37), which detuned the antenna and produced SWR >99 across
the entire band.

Two compounding errors in moxonDimensions():
- The polynomial coefficients did not match the standard Cebik/MoxGen
  Moxon equations.
- The full element width A was treated as a half-width and then doubled.

Replaced the formulas with L.B. Cebik's (W4RNL) MoxGen regression
equations and corrected the full-width vs. half-width handling. The
14.15 MHz / 2 mm design now comes out to 7.73 m x 2.81 m, matching MoxGen.

Closes #63
The End-Fed Half-Wave geometry fixed the horizontal span at the
half-wave length and set the far-end height independently, so the actual
conductor was the hypotenuse — longer than a half-wave whenever the ends
were at different heights. With the default 40m design (feed 10 m, far
end 3 m) the wire came out 21.66 m instead of 20.49 m (~5.7% long),
pushing resonance below the swept band and leaving SWR ~3.9 at the
design frequency.

The horizontal run is now derived from the height drop so the conductor
is always a true half-wave; changing the far-end height tilts the sloper
instead of stretching the wire. A clamp keeps the geometry valid if the
requested height drop exceeds the wire length. Verified with nec2c
(average ground, 49:1 transform): SWR at the 7.1 MHz design point drops
from 3.88 to 1.49, with resonance landing near the design frequency.
The fan dipole only matched on its lowest band; 20m and 10m showed very
high SWR. Three compounding problems:

1. Feed topology: every element's left and right halves all terminated
   at one common node, with the source on the longest element's segment.
   Only that dipole straddled the source across its center and was driven
   differentially; the other elements had both halves tied to the same
   node, so they were never excited as dipoles and hung off the feed as
   quasi-parasitic stubs (high, reactive impedance -> very high SWR).
2. Fan spread stretched each element: the horizontal span was fixed at
   the half-length while the ends dropped vertically, so the conductor
   was longer than its resonant length (worse on higher bands).
3. End-effect shortening put the coupled elements above their bands.

Now all left halves join a left terminal and all right halves a right
terminal, bridged by a short driven feed segment, so every dipole is fed
across its center simultaneously. Each arm is held at a fixed length and
the fan spread only tilts it. Element length compensates for the upward
resonance shift caused by fan mutual coupling.

Verified with nec2c (average ground, default 40/20/10m design): in-band
SWR at band centers improves from ~1.8/14/27 to ~2.7/2.3/1.9 for
40m/20m/10m. Fan dipoles still benefit from per-element trimming in
practice, but all bands are now usable out of the box.
@EA1FUO EA1FUO merged commit 71e2a49 into main May 30, 2026
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@EA1FUO EA1FUO deleted the fix/template-adjustments branch May 30, 2026 15:29
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simulator hates Moxon template

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