The simple End Feed antenna
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| Aug 26th 2016, 13:53 | |
WA8OPRTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
08/21/2016 Terry Clinard WA8OPR ARRL member # 0001345657 33918 Macomb Ave. Farmington, MI 48335 PH 248-752-6733 Email tclinard@hotmail.com To: ARRL QST editor I have been ticketed for 54 years. I hold an Extra Class License. Before I become a silent key, I wanted to write a small article for the non-technical hams concerning a simple proven wire antenna I use for all my communications on HF 160M through 6 meters. It probably has minimal gain with 2 to 6 DB gain on lower bands. I have constructed and used just about every wire antenna out there with the exception of a rhombic design. This basic end feed antenna is simple to use and construct. You only need a sling shot to go to the nearest highest point tree. It is great for limited property space. Article is as follows: Subject: A simple good performance wire End Feed wire for HF. Mechanics: 1 Antenna length 130-140 ft. or 170ft. 2 Wire gage 12 through 22 insulated wire Configuration: 1 Works best when feed at ground level of the shack. Elevated feed point sometimes causes problems with loading from second story of house. 2 Use a simple “L” antenna tuner. Series tapped coil with shunt capacitor 10-324pf. Example: MFJ 16010. Cost $70.00 3 String antenna from center of SO239 on the antenna tuner output. Route wire inside the shack to the outside, through a window or wall. String wire to the nearest high point on the home and then to the top of any tree. Wire can be bent any number of time, but must not bend greater than 90 degrees at any routing point. Works best for straight line with no bends. “L” or straight. 4 Ground the antenna tuner & transceiver with conventional ground rods and add one 135 ft. to 220 ft. single insulated wire wrapped around the square of your home & attach to earth ground point. Lay it on the earth where the basement wall meets the wall of the house. You can overlap the long wire length. 5 Best performance using an Artificial ground wire in conjunction with an earth ground and counter poise wire. i.e. MFJ 931. Use an artificial ground only if you do not have a good earth ground. Options: 1 If for some reason the end feed does not load with low SWR on 160M use a 75 to 150pf door knob capacitor in series with the end feed wire at the antenna tuner. 2 I use two 170 ft. end feeds. One wire runs north to south and the other runs east to west. This will give some different lower angle lobes on 40M through 10 meters. 3 Use a 170 ft. end feed for optimum performance on 160M. If you do not operate on 160 M than 135 ft. is sufficient, but 135 ft. will also load on 160M. Investment: 1 The cost of insulated wire only. No baluns or special feed point creations or coax. Performance: 1 The end feed when used with a counter poise has never caused me any RFI in the shack or radiated to the neighbors. 2 I have excellent results on 160M through 15M. I keep up with any station worldwide for DX. I use only 450 watts when needed and most of the time get 59 plus reports. Using two end feeds at 90 degrees from each other does give me some directional patterns on these bands. 3 Performance on 160M with 170 ft. is good to average when compared to a full wave loop. |
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