Antenna contemplations

The wire from my Inverted L End Fed Zepp met its doom this past August..  I went outside after a particularly bad evening of thunderstorms to find wire hanging down on the back porch and the other end hanging down the mast that was supporting the far end.  The gusty winds caused it to fall apart somewhere in the middle.

I didn’t use it much as I could never get a decent match on the antenna tuner.  For whatever reason, perhaps the truly random length of it and the lack of a decent counterpoise, it always gave my auto tuner fits and starts.

This evening (and for the past few evenings) I was following a discussion on W3EDP antennas on the Polar Bear QRP Ops mailing list.  I did a lil’ Googlin’ and came up with this:

http://www.qsl.net/w5rin/Projects/Antennas/ae5vv/W3EDPAntenna.pdf

I can (I think) definitely fit a 67″ hunk of wire along the run that was occupied by my ill fated EFZ.  According to the .pdf, that should make operations on 80 Meters and up possible.  However, I would really like to find a way to squeeze an 85″ piece of wire, in order to make operations possible on 160 Meters, too.  I know, not nearly an ideal antler for 160 – but something is better than nothing (which is what I have right now).

I have the ladder line and I have a heavy duty 4:1 balun that my friend Bob W3BBO was not using and sent me.  I have the wire and the coax is still there. I just need to cobble one of these together and get it up before the weather really turns nasty for the winter.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

3 Responses to “Antenna contemplations”

  • Alex K5UNY:

    Larry
    Good luck with that w3edp version of the antenna. I was asking about mine on the Polar Bear reflector and got a few responsesnthat were all positive. BJ Bear, wa8rei, uses just a plain old hunk of 85ft wire and he claims its better than Melted Butter on Popcorn!!
    Mine is built per your drawing but got mine from VE3CLQ Blog.
    By the way,,,,the Elecraft T1 will tune it from 80 thru 10 meters without a hic-cup. I may try the 85ft wire and see if it will tune 160,but generally 160 and 80 are too noisey around here for me to mess too much with them.Might be worth a try out running Portable where AZI am away from Suberbia noise sources.
    72 and Gggrrrrrrr
    Alex K5UNY Pb 105

  • Alex K5UNY:

    Larry
    Good luck with that w3edp version of the antenna. I was asking about mine on the Polar Bear reflector and got a few responsesnthat were all positive. BJ Bear, WA8REI, uses just a plain old hunk of 85ft wire and he claims its better than Melted Butter on Popcorn!!
    Mine is built per your drawing but got mine from VE3CLQ Blog.
    By the way,,,,the Elecraft T1 will tune it from 80 thru 10 meters without a hic-cup. I may try the 85ft wire and see if it will tune 160,but generally 160 and 80 are too noisey around here for me to mess too much with them.Might be worth a try out running Portable where I am away from Suberbia noise sources.
    72 and Gggrrrrrrr
    Alex K5UNY Pb 105

  • Chris KQ2RP:

    Larry, if you can find a way to fit 94′, you might consider the G0FAH / ZS6BKW design. It resonates on 5 bands and my T1 tuner will get it to play (1.5:1) on the rest, 160-6m. It is very forgiving and you could drop the ends with little effect on tuning. I’ve used it for over a year and it has given me 134 QRP DXCC in that time.

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