Since getting the radio licence about four years ago and then started messing about making antennas I found it was a bit like making my own fishing lures . You can maybe buy better nicer looking ones , but you get a bit of satisfaction when something you’ve made works well enough . Sometimes you have to use gear that suits your own situation rather than what you wanted to use.
At home for HF the antenna which is best suited to our garden is the EFHW to cover bands 40m up to 10m on one bit of wire . I made some transformers and cut some wire for doing /P as well . I made a linked dipole for 20/40m , but that needs a longer run of coax feeder and was not as quick to set up out on the fells or elsewhere as the EFHW . The disadvantage would be the horizontal space needed to deploy it , but I’ve always been able to get it strung out in some way or another up to now . I’ve had it in various shapes and heights , and the main bands I use like 20/40m are usually fine . It sometimes throws the higher bands out a bit , but I’ve seen it improve the SWR before as well ?
With the EFHW I can use the same short coax I use on 2m to feed the transformer which is usually only 2 or 3 ft off the ground which saves on weight in the ruck sack , the centre pole can be near enough in the middle for an inverted V or I can do away with a short support for the far end and just run it as a sloped antenna from the transformer using the roach pole fully extended at the far end .
On VHF it seems to be swings and roundabouts when comparing things like slim jims and flowerpots . They can both be made to roll up compact also they are it seems fairly equal on performance when doing SOTA with other people and you are working the same stations , obviously the radio performance has to be considered as well .
I now only use the yagi beam occasionally, which I made from a plan I think Alex G7KSE called it the B&Q beam because that’s where you coud get the bits from I assume . It works great when you need gain in particular directions , but for most occasions on SOTA WOTA I prefer the omni directional antenna when you have the height . I’ve seen Reg receiving weaker signals on his slim jim which I could not hear nor them me , until I turned the beam round and then I was the one sending and receiving stronger signals . You need to hear them first though !
There are loads of options I’ve never tried and I bet everybody has their favourites .
Richard 2E0XGO
EFHW set up
- Looking forward to your talk at Workington next week on Wednesday.