M0BPQ Amateur radio
  • M0BPQ Home
  • Radio Blog
  • APRS
  • Equipment
  • Clubs
  • QSL
  • Photos
  • Contacts
  • G5YC
  • What's new?
  • For Sale

HF antenna

4/12/2010

0 Comments

 
I have needed to get back on the HF bands for some time, but from my suburban location getting an effective antenna was always going to be a problem. This picture shows a sat view of the house with distances marked up.
Picture
There are several questions to answer – what is an effective antenna? Which bands? DX vs EU vs intra-G? The problem is that I want it all, who doesn’t, but can only really manage a single low profile (i.e. wire) solution.

I have a pole at the bottom of the garden that is about 7m tall and it seems that I have two general options. 1) is a monopole of sorts 2) is a doublet or multiband dipole. The monopole is an OK option as I have enough room to get in an inverted L that will be effective on 80m, but the downside is that I can only have radials in my own garden and not 360 degrees around the antenna base. The doublet dipole solution is also OK, but it will be quite low to the ground and I have the additional problem of routing potentially unsightly feeder to the radio position.

Whilst a 30m (100ft) span doublet fed with open wire really appeals, I have decided to try the inverted L with auto ATU approach as I have an extensive network of radials buried in the garden already. Based on work by the late W4RNL I chose a 95 foot version (although I do not have the same vertical component as LB’s model)   It only took me a few hours over the weekend to install and I am finally back on the HF bands. First QSO was YI9PSE in Iraq on 20m, so it does seem to work, even though I doubt it will ever be a killer antenna. It’s nice to be back.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    A few notes on recent radio activity by Steve, M0BPQ.

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2012
    October 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2011
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    April 2008

    Categories

    All
    All
    Aprs
    Contests
    Hf Contests
    Projects
    Scout Radio
    Txbpf
    Vhf

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.