Antennas

Anticipation abounds: 2021 6M sporadic-E season

May 5, 2021

Early indications are that 6M will have a good summer this year. For those new or getting back to 6M activity, here’s the current state of affairs.

Recap: 2021 WPX RTTY

February 16, 2021

Brief European opening on 20M and a hopping 80M band were highlights of WPX RTTY this year.

Matching transformer for “loop on ground” and Beverage antennas

February 2, 2021

This is a companion piece to the post “Hearing through the noise on the low bands“. Why bother? After years of thinking about it, in early 2021 I finally got serious about building some proper matching transformers for my short Beverage wire antenna along the property line and a loop on the ground laying on […]

Zone Zero: February packed with activity

February 1, 2021

The month of February promises something for everyone, as several major international contests and some pretty neat regional activities fill the calendar. We’ll take a look at what’s on the near horizon in this episode of Zone Zero.

Zone Zero: Top Band action in CQ 160M CW

January 26, 2021

The latest edition of the Zone Zero radio contesting podcast takes a look at the upcoming CQ 160M CW contest, and the antennas used for transmitting and receiving at a modest station that produces plenty of fun in the contests.

Transmit antennas for a 160M contest

January 23, 2021

As we prepare for CQ 160M CW in a week, attention turns to transmit antennas for Top Band (1.8Mhz).

Hearing through the noise on the low bands

January 22, 2021

To improve the signal-to-noise ratio on 160M and 80M, many radio contesters and DXers use separate low-noise receive antennas. This alone can make the difference between “working them” and not even hearing them.

Adding 7 elements on 6M

October 10, 2018

6M is about to be a whole lot more fun from VA7ST with the addition of an M2 6M7JHV yagi — 7 elements on a 30-foot boom.

ARRL 160M pre- and post-contest

December 8, 2017

The Zone Zero podcast featured two episodes devoted to the 2017 ARRL 160M contest. See how I thought I would do in the contest, then listen to how I actually did.

The Large and Powerful Spider Beam

January 23, 2016

Here’s a homemade, lightweight but full-size triband yagi (with directors and reflectors in V configuration) interlaced on a 32-foot boom. And it works like a dream.

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