Antennas

CDE rotator scale: refit for North center

April 11, 2011

Depending on your location, changing your rotator control meter’s scale to a north-centered scale could greatly reduce the turning required to work the most popular areas. Here’s a step-by-step guide to making the change on a CDE rotator control — including a printable high-resolution image of the North-centered meter scale.

The 80M elevated wire vertical array

August 26, 2010

Here’s a great 80M antenna: a pair of raised 1/4-wave (68′) verticals in the pine woods, using Christman phasing, and capable of firing in either of two directions. Mine aim east and west.

A cheap 40M DX machine: the twin half-square array

August 19, 2010

This may be the cheapest, lowest, no-radials-required, no fancy networks, way to get great gain on 40M. If you have some rope, trees, junkbox wire, a couple of DPDT relays, and some coax laying around, you have all it takes to build this antenna.

Analyzing my terrain for HF gain

July 11, 2010

Sometimes when my antenna is at 25′, I do quite well into Canada and the U.S — perhaps even better than with the antenna at 45′. Terrain analysis helped end the mystery of height vs. performance at this ridge-top QTH.

Building a Beverage receive antenna

November 16, 2009

If you have room to run a short 270′-long Beverage antenna, you’ll improve your reception on the low bands (160M and 80M). Here’s how I built the antenna and just-too-easy transformer.

SteppIR 3-element yagi

May 15, 2009

Choosing the SteppIR 3-element was not a difficult decision. Those who have used this antenna swear by it. Read my notes as I purchased, installed and put one on the air at VA7ST.

A linear-loaded 40M rotatable dipole

August 27, 2006

The “crappie pole” is a short, linearly loaded 40M rotatable dipole you can build for $50 or less. And it works!

The Small, Powerful Hex Beam

May 15, 2002

This is a home-made five-band antenna made from bits of bamboo, some hose clamps, a few wires, and lots of hours of puzzling, building and — at last — huge satisfaction.

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