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My bespoke portable HF antenna, called the EiffelTenna, is featured in the October issue of Practical Wireless. I was inspired by a video of Jim W6LG on his Youtube Channel as well as the further work of Jason VE5REV via Twitter (X). It’s a fun build, inexpensive, is very portable, and works 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. I use Faraday Cloth for the counterpoise and place the tripod directly on it.

The 40 meter operation works as a center-loaded vertical, something I posted on regarding the inductor coils recently. If you intend to build the EiffelTenna, check out that article too. The EiffelTenna base alone would be good for Technicians since it works on 10 meters without a whip or coil. A stainless steel whip on top of the tripod makes for a solid vertical with its own mounting base. For windy conditions, I use some 1lb ankle weights attached to each tripod leg using the built-in velcro straps.

Shown below is the EiffelTenna deployed for testing on my driveway. (Click for full image) It is setup for 40 meters using a JPC-12 inductor coil. Others work as well or better so this was just the option used here because it’s adjustable. The RF sweep has the coil bypassed using KB9VBR’s trick for use on 20 meters. Nearly 50 ohms with SWR of 1.06 at 14.154 MHz. Note how relatively small the counterpoise cloth is in this picture.

This full antenna system packs down into an inexpensive camera tripod bag ($16 via Amazon). A RigExpert antenna analyzer is underneath the Faraday Cloth for matching in the field. Coax from RG-316 with a ferrite bead choke is wound on a wire winder printed by my public library for the cost of resin ($4). Blue ankle weights were purchased at Academy Sports while on sale.

The EiffelTenna uses traditional vertical antenna concepts with unexpected objects serving as both a ground mount and a radiating element. Thanks Jim W6LG and Jason VE5REV for the inspiration!