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My shack is fairly spartan. Just the IC7000 as a main rig. The antenna farm is equally so with all antennas in the loft bar a 2m & 70cm colinear.

Its a fairly spacious loft mind you. Enough room for a Watson 80 plus 2 dipole (Which they don’t seem to make any more) with extra elements for 30m and a 4 element 10m band yagi. But 80m is really not working for me.

So with a few hours to spare this weekend and a bit if ladder line I pulled together a W3EDP antenna. Its nothing new and a very cost effective antenna. So without going through all the detail it was either that or nothing at all for 80m. I just simply don’t have the space for a windom ( which is what I would have preferred) and  G7FEK limited space antenna would have meant more stuff in the garden to annoy the XYL.

Needless to say I got the chance to try it out, firstly with the Hack Green SDR and shortly afterwards a nice QSO with Peter, G4LHI in Huntingdon.

So for a couple of hours work I can recommend the W3EDP. Noting of course the current at the end and need for a good counterpoise / earth. I can also say that even in a lash up configuration it withstood some pretty big winds here in IO84 this weekend.

So where to find out more:

Well a simple Google will give you most of the info you need but you could do worse than invest in the the Stealth Antennas book. I have a copy of the older version,
I see the new one has a different cover, I’m not sure if there was much change in the insides between editions but there’s something in there for everyone. From ultra small weird looking things to some old favourites like loops and verticals all the way to ultra cheapo types.

Its not all good news though. The XYL isn’t happy with the wire. The Watson 80 plus 2 (whose inspiration came from the G4ILO section of this book) didn’t quite meet my expectations and I didn’t quite get the G7FEK constructed. Maybe next time.

If you’re stealthier on 80m then I’m sure I won’t be the only one who is interested in finding out how you did it. If not then lucky you for having enough garden and don’t forget to listen out for the weak signals.

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