This is great info. I have had very good luck with a 49:1 unun and 20m wire. No chokes or jumpers and it gets me 40m, 20m and 10m without a tuner. Using the tuner in my FT-710, I also get 6m, 12m, 15m, and 17m. It is so nice to be able to go from band to band without going outside and fiddling with the antenna. Love the videos Peter.
Many years ago I was living at a temporary address but wanted to use my HF radio, gazing upwards looking for ideas I spotted the TV antenna way above the chimney. Feeding the coax braid common mode against a few 1/4 wave counterpoises tucked under the carpet worked surprisingly well. A later refinement allowed me to watch TV while transmitting 100w.....
Love your videos. I don't know how popular POTA is in Great Britain but a great way to test an antenna here in the states is to hunt POTA. Over there you have all of Europe to test your antenna. Great video, as always. Thanks. Steve, k7ofg.
Thanks for another great video. EFHW is on my list of things to try but I can attest to surprising results from things I've just thrown in the air for a test, despite non-ideal setup. So as you point out, make something and test it over a few sessions to give conditions a chance.
I love my stealthy, not so random, ‘ random wire’ especially in this chilly weather when its a bit too nippy for me to go /p down at the beach! NVIS on 40m, great fun! Thanks for all your brilliant videos Peter! 💐
I live in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA and have a technician class license, which is limited to a small section of the 10 meter band (28.300-28.500). I live in an HOA which has restrictions on antennas. I bought a 10 meter radio and built a dipole out of speaker wire which I mounted to he top of my 6ft wood fence. My first contact was to Toronto, Canada, about 1900 kilometers. I have made other DX contacts as well. Just get a wire up and try.
I have made wire aerials using 24swg enamelled copper wire. Once it has weathered a bit, it is almost impossible to spot. The pigeons occasionally fly into it and snap it, but it is very easy to solder it back together.
I’m quite new to HF and have a very compact garden and I run a 20m long EFHW. As you say, it’s a compromise but although mine is only 4m up I’ve worked 55 countries and got as far as Brazil!
A happy new year Peter...How about non-resonant? I run 155' off center fed all the way around my backyard/garden, through the trees, tall shrubbery, then terminating to the top of a 10m fiberglass pole, strapped to a fence post. I have all of 80 meters, even Western Europe by night easily on 40 meters, and finally, great reach on 20. I pulled ideas from you over the years to concoct this monstrosity. I use a feed-point remote antenna tuner, and only a relatively short counterpoise. 9:1 unun fed...Thank you Peter, as always...N2QFK
Here here. Great idea! Already scrounging up a battery remote control relay in a box to switch in the other sections. Will run it by my VNA and Analyzer. Building and testing is more fun than using. -Foy N1FOY
I put a box at the bottom with a 9:1 unun to use as a random, a direct connection for 40m, and a 49:1 to act as a half wave on 20m and 10m. All set up as remote relay box. need ground radials to for 40m. will hit all but 80 with a low swr before you need the tuner. Just a waterproof box in the yard with 33 ft of wire up in a tree. pretty much invisible.
I've a few stealth antennas, they are great fun and serve a purpose if you are restricted. Gutter wires are great i just lay them in the plastic gutter and replace every few years, ive found them better than loft wires.
The non radial verticals use the unun feed method. Usually the ratio is about 6 to 1 and radiator is about 28-ft long. Use at least 15-20 feet coax feed before using ferrite snap on chokes. Best to use 2 or 3 snap ons. Best ant use is 40M and up. Edit: DE KK5R
When I worked for the RA I found loads of hidden antennas using the direction finder in my vehicle. However, none of them were operating in the amateur bands.
Supports are more of the problem than the wire. 20 meters of #18 bare stranded copper wire or fish line that is more than enough for 100 watts plus end fed. Even a sloper from the peak of the house to the back fence is a good solution. For the low bands a remote antenna tuner into a quarter or less is a best solution as you don't want RF in the shack.
Usually a 0.05 wavelength counterpoise, but you can use the outer of the coax as a counterpoise if you have enough coax. Choke off the coax before it enters the building or a few metres from the radio. Mostly I prefer to use a separate counterpoise wire. Think of an EFHW as a VERY off centre fed dipole.
Thx. Peter thank you so much Peter, your antenna lessons and putting SWR into perspective are very motivating! We live in an apartment on the 2nd is top floor with a large flat roof above me and a skylight that can be opened. How I would like to set up a long antenna wire of 20 meters on that roof... However, there are always fellow residents who... question which part of the antenna first tune the 20M or 40M ? thanks for this nice antenna design the UnUn of your video example is already ready. 73 Theo PA0HTY.
Another great video,Peter.my wooden fence is however steel capped on top. The steel is here and there interrupted so cannot use it as a gutter antenna.but supposecanalso not run a wireover it ? Happy new year. Johan
It will work, but you’ll certainly have restricted bandwidth and will miss stations, but you can make contacts. It won’t quite match the end fed’s performance (at proper height), but it WILL save space. The Comet 250HD is the perfect example and you can even talk on 80m on it.
It depends on what you mean. If you mean a quarter wave on 15m, then a coil after that as a combined choke/loading coil, then maybe. If you're talking about a loaded vertical with a coil at the bottom for 40m, it won't work on 15m. A 40m dipole/vertical is only resonant on 15m if it's the full length. The coil will act differently on 40m and on 15m.
Thanks Peter. It would be good if you could give some practical information on building and adjusting that 65 uH loading coil for 40 meters - how many turns, spacing, wire gauge etc. Thanks. BTW just bought a new FT-710 two weeks ago (absolutely love it) actually prefer it against my FTDX-10, but it appears the Yaesu UK cash back website is faulty - it cannot accept the PDF invoice for proof of purchase. AR 73
Hey there Peter! Thx for the video! Your comments about trimming the length of the antenna wire raised a question. Where do you trim when dealing with a three section antenna? Happy new year! 73 Carlyle KO4QNT
Any transmit antenna, indoor loop antenna sometime called a box antenna that use a multi-turn loop antenna and tuned it with a bar capacitor, then a myriad of active receive antennas (I prefer a conjugated crossed dual circular or square loop antennas which is is fed into a balanced RX PRE-AMP...
Bit of wire. Usually as long and as high as you can get it. If it's for a particular frequency or band, you can create a resonant antenna for that band. If it's for general coverage, you can connect a random length directly to the receiver or you can put in a 9:1 unun and run coax from there, perhaps coax inside the building so it's shielded from interference when inside the building.
I'm in one of those restricted situations, so I must make do with less than ideal antennas. That means dealing with tuners and a high SWR. I've had some luck with a non-resonant 49' wire into my attic, a 9:1 unun, and an inexpensive auto-tuner. (The 9:1 proved a must.) It works on all bands from 40 meters up, including the WARC bands. But that has me wondering if I might fry my finals while that auto-tuner finds a match. I've dealt with that my running my radio in low power (20 watts rather than 100). But I'm wondering if I should do more. You've got a lot of experience with such things. You might want to do a video on just how serious (or not) the issue is and how to protect finals during tune-up.
Hello - I'm in a very similar situation with a *very* small back yard. The aerial I opted for was a T2FD, (Peter sells them) the Diamond WD-330J/S Broadband Dipole.
Thank you for this video! ... but what happened to the audio track? I seems, that only the top high region of the audio spectrum has been recorded? vy73 from Hamburg/Germany, Dietmar, DL4HAO :)
@@watersstanton Thank you for your fast reply. I just recognized, it was my fault, my pc has switched the audio output to the internal speaker of my small external HDMI monitor, so now, with the normal external speaker, everythin is fine! vy73, Dietmar, DL4HAO
I have a long wire that is 119 feet long and I have a 9:1 UnUn. the SWR is above 3 on all bands. Will shortening the wire to 71 feet help bring the SWR down. My Yaesu seems to be able to cope and match the SWR down to 1ish.
There's the problem 😉 Germans can have trouble with English English accent, compared to US American, typically from California or Oregon, where the "dialect problem" is less.. US English from the SE and NE, and Midwest, are more difficult. Most Europeans actually find Canadian English the easiest to understand, but Scottish, funktioniert nicht!
@@lohikarhu734 We have a US Army radio station here in the Stuttgart area - AFN - I listen it most of the day-time ... it just plays rock music and not that crap music like the other radio stations. I also went to one of the US barracks several times a week for work. So my ears are probably tuned in from US English. When an English person speaks, it sounds to me like Donald Duck talking
Hi Peter, I use a fishing rod with ten meters wire as antenna, in QRP and a manual antenna tuner, I'd like to try a wire antenna with 49:1 balun soon, thank for your advice 73 de iu7bsh op. Marco
This is great info. I have had very good luck with a 49:1 unun and 20m wire. No chokes or jumpers and it gets me 40m, 20m and 10m without a tuner. Using the tuner in my FT-710, I also get 6m, 12m, 15m, and 17m. It is so nice to be able to go from band to band without going outside and fiddling with the antenna. Love the videos Peter.
Yes ditto i also have a 20m wire with a 49.1 unun and do very well with it to Australia etc with my 100w
🥇🥇🥇
Many years ago I was living at a temporary address but wanted to use my HF radio, gazing upwards looking for ideas I spotted the TV antenna way above the chimney. Feeding the coax braid common mode against a few 1/4 wave counterpoises tucked under the carpet worked surprisingly well. A later refinement allowed me to watch TV while transmitting 100w.....
Love your videos. I don't know how popular POTA is in Great Britain but a great way to test an antenna here in the states is to hunt POTA. Over there you have all of Europe to test your antenna.
Great video, as always. Thanks.
Steve, k7ofg.
Thanks for another great video. EFHW is on my list of things to try but I can attest to surprising results from things I've just thrown in the air for a test, despite non-ideal setup. So as you point out, make something and test it over a few sessions to give conditions a chance.
I love my stealthy, not so random, ‘ random wire’ especially in this chilly weather when its a bit too nippy for me to go /p down at the beach! NVIS on 40m, great fun! Thanks for all your brilliant videos Peter! 💐
Thanks for sharing!
You are doing so well Peter
Much appreciated.
I live in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA and have a technician class license, which is limited to a small section of the 10 meter band (28.300-28.500). I live in an HOA which has restrictions on antennas. I bought a 10 meter radio and built a dipole out of speaker wire which I mounted to he top of my 6ft wood fence. My first contact was to Toronto, Canada, about 1900 kilometers. I have made other DX contacts as well. Just get a wire up and try.
Well done. Sound advice.
I have made wire aerials using 24swg enamelled copper wire. Once it has weathered a bit, it is almost impossible to spot. The pigeons occasionally fly into it and snap it, but it is very easy to solder it back together.
Any antenna is better than no antenna… have fun always! 73
100%
Always very good information.
I’m quite new to HF and have a very compact garden and I run a 20m long EFHW. As you say, it’s a compromise but although mine is only 4m up I’ve worked 55 countries and got as far as Brazil!
Great news. Keep at it.
Great video Peter, just getting out there and having a go is magic.
Thanks for using metric Peter
A happy new year Peter...How about non-resonant? I run 155' off center fed all the way around my backyard/garden, through the trees, tall shrubbery, then terminating to the top of a 10m fiberglass pole, strapped to a fence post. I have all of 80 meters, even Western Europe by night easily on 40 meters, and finally, great reach on 20. I pulled ideas from you over the years to concoct this monstrosity. I use a feed-point remote antenna tuner, and only a relatively short counterpoise. 9:1 unun fed...Thank you Peter, as always...N2QFK
Sounds a great performer.
Great video antennas are a black magic process
Always wanted to try the metal washing line would be perfect stealth antenna if it worked 😂
9:1 unun and a tuner, it'll work.
Here here.
Great idea!
Already scrounging up a battery remote control relay in a box to switch in the other sections.
Will run it by my VNA and Analyzer.
Building and testing is more fun than using.
-Foy
N1FOY
I put a box at the bottom with a 9:1 unun to use as a random, a direct connection for 40m, and a 49:1 to act as a half wave on 20m and 10m. All set up as remote relay box. need ground radials to for 40m. will hit all but 80 with a low swr before you need the tuner. Just a waterproof box in the yard with 33 ft of wire up in a tree. pretty much invisible.
I've a few stealth antennas, they are great fun and serve a purpose if you are restricted.
Gutter wires are great i just lay them in the plastic gutter and replace every few years, ive found them better than loft wires.
Good info.
The non radial verticals use the unun feed method. Usually the ratio is about 6 to 1 and radiator is about 28-ft long. Use at least 15-20 feet coax feed before using ferrite snap on chokes. Best to use 2 or 3 snap ons. Best ant use is 40M and up.
Edit: DE KK5R
Thanks for the info!
When I worked for the RA I found loads of hidden antennas using the direction finder in my vehicle. However, none of them were operating in the amateur bands.
RA ??
@@hallen4094 Radiocommunications Agency.
@@hallen4094 Radiocommunications Agency maybe. Now known as Ofcom.
Great advice Peter...W6QR
Great nest of ideas. Thank you.
Works great
Supports are more of the problem than the wire. 20 meters of #18 bare stranded copper wire or fish line that is more than enough for 100 watts plus end fed. Even a sloper from the peak of the house to the back fence is a good solution. For the low bands a remote antenna tuner into a quarter or less is a best solution as you don't want RF in the shack.
Does the EFHW with 49:1 unun need a counterpoise wire, or is the single wire sufficient?
Usually a 0.05 wavelength counterpoise, but you can use the outer of the coax as a counterpoise if you have enough coax. Choke off the coax before it enters the building or a few metres from the radio. Mostly I prefer to use a separate counterpoise wire. Think of an EFHW as a VERY off centre fed dipole.
Thx. Peter thank you so much Peter, your antenna lessons and putting SWR into perspective are very motivating! We live in an apartment on the 2nd is top floor with a large flat roof above me and a skylight that can be opened. How I would like to set up a long antenna wire of 20 meters on that roof... However, there are always fellow residents who... question which part of the antenna first tune the 20M or 40M ? thanks for this nice antenna design the UnUn of your video example is already ready. 73 Theo PA0HTY.
Another great video,Peter.my wooden fence is however steel capped on top. The steel is here and there interrupted so cannot use it as a gutter antenna.but supposecanalso not run a wireover it ? Happy new year. Johan
Thanks John. Happy new year to you.
Give it a try. Also try linking a wire across the interruptions to use the steel itself.
Peter, If youre using a horizontal wire antenna, as youve discussed here. Is it better in a North-South or East-West orientation?
I have the same question.
In general radiation will be at right angles to the run of the wire. You choose what is best for your location.
@@watersstantonMine is what I call a flat L (it bends) so I have trouble guessing how that radiates! Paul G1THW
Would a 1/4 wave vertical using a coil resonate on 40 & 15 meters and save space compared to the endfed 1/2 wave??? Thanks for your videos! ❤
It will work, but you’ll certainly have restricted bandwidth and will miss stations, but you can make contacts. It won’t quite match the end fed’s performance (at proper height), but it WILL save space. The Comet 250HD is the perfect example and you can even talk on 80m on it.
@@BBaldwin Thanks for the ideas!
It depends on what you mean. If you mean a quarter wave on 15m, then a coil after that as a combined choke/loading coil, then maybe. If you're talking about a loaded vertical with a coil at the bottom for 40m, it won't work on 15m. A 40m dipole/vertical is only resonant on 15m if it's the full length. The coil will act differently on 40m and on 15m.
Thanks Peter. It would be good if you could give some practical information on building and adjusting that 65 uH loading coil for 40 meters - how many turns, spacing, wire gauge etc. Thanks. BTW just bought a new FT-710 two weeks ago (absolutely love it) actually prefer it against my FTDX-10, but it appears the Yaesu UK cash back website is faulty - it cannot accept the PDF invoice for proof of purchase. AR 73
Try this on-line inductance calculator
www.66pacific.com/calculators/coil-inductance-calculator.aspx
My stealth antennas are a nest of dipoles in my loft...would love to get them outside but hey ho.
Hey there Peter! Thx for the video! Your comments about trimming the length of the antenna wire raised a question. Where do you trim when dealing with a three section antenna?
Happy new year! 73
Carlyle KO4QNT
Each section needs to be trimmed band by band apart from 10m which follows 20m band automatically.
Peter, how does a wire placed along the to of a fence with 100W feed comply with the new regulations on emf to your neighbours bodies???
Tell them not to sit directly below it while you're transmitting.
The RSGB has a calculator on their website.
I assume you are expecting the coax to act as the counterpoise? Or do you prefer to hang one (2-3M?) from the UnUn?
73, Earl WA4KBT
The coax feed dies the job.
Can an arial drape or must it be pulled tight?
It makes little difference provided not draped over metal.
Would this Antenna still work if it’s 18inches off the ground fixed to a low brick wall?
All antennas work, but there is only one way to find out how well an antenna works!
Do you have advices for receive only HF antennas?
Any transmit antenna, indoor loop antenna sometime called a box antenna that use a multi-turn loop antenna and tuned it with a bar capacitor, then a myriad of active receive antennas (I prefer a conjugated crossed dual circular or square loop antennas which is is fed into a balanced RX PRE-AMP...
Many...
Bit of wire. Usually as long and as high as you can get it. If it's for a particular frequency or band, you can create a resonant antenna for that band. If it's for general coverage, you can connect a random length directly to the receiver or you can put in a 9:1 unun and run coax from there, perhaps coax inside the building so it's shielded from interference when inside the building.
@ Thank you!
I'm in one of those restricted situations, so I must make do with less than ideal antennas. That means dealing with tuners and a high SWR. I've had some luck with a non-resonant 49' wire into my attic, a 9:1 unun, and an inexpensive auto-tuner. (The 9:1 proved a must.) It works on all bands from 40 meters up, including the WARC bands.
But that has me wondering if I might fry my finals while that auto-tuner finds a match. I've dealt with that my running my radio in low power (20 watts rather than 100). But I'm wondering if I should do more. You've got a lot of experience with such things. You might want to do a video on just how serious (or not) the issue is and how to protect finals during tune-up.
You are doing the right thing. Tune up on low power first.
Hello - I'm in a very similar situation with a *very* small back yard. The aerial I opted for was a T2FD, (Peter sells them) the Diamond WD-330J/S Broadband Dipole.
I usually turn mine down to 5W on FM to tune when I'm using my manual tuner.
Thank you for this video! ... but what happened to the audio track? I seems, that only the top high region of the audio spectrum has been recorded? vy73 from Hamburg/Germany, Dietmar, DL4HAO :)
Cannot hear a problem or see any problem on EQ display.
@@watersstanton Thank you for your fast reply. I just recognized, it was my fault, my pc has switched the audio output to the internal speaker of my small external HDMI monitor, so now, with the normal external speaker, everythin is fine! vy73, Dietmar, DL4HAO
What about a shop tour video?
On the list.
He doesn't have a shop : (
@@DXCommanderHQ Isn't the shop in Milton Keynes?
5:32 before he said what antenna it is. It's EFHW
Mum's the word old top.
I have a long wire that is 119 feet long and I have a 9:1 UnUn. the SWR is above 3 on all bands. Will shortening the wire to 71 feet help bring the SWR down. My Yaesu seems to be able to cope and match the SWR down to 1ish.
I wouldn't worry about it if the radio can tune it. That's the nature of a random wire antenna, it needs a tuner.
My experience with 9:1 is that you really have to try it and see. The feeder length also comes into play.
09/01/25. Thursday.
pick a frequency and call out . they will find you
COSI L.ANTENNA E IL CAVO COAASIALE...LA CALZA ESTERNA...
Et encore une IA....pénible...!!
Can't the English talk like the Americans? This is easier for me to understand as a German
He is English.🇬🇧
There's the problem 😉
Germans can have trouble with English English accent, compared to US American, typically from California or Oregon, where the "dialect problem" is less.. US English from the SE and NE, and Midwest, are more difficult.
Most Europeans actually find Canadian English the easiest to understand, but Scottish, funktioniert nicht!
@@lohikarhu734 We have a US Army radio station here in the Stuttgart area - AFN -
I listen it most of the day-time ... it just plays rock music and not that crap music like the other radio stations.
I also went to one of the US barracks several times a week for work.
So my ears are probably tuned in from US English.
When an English person speaks, it sounds to me like Donald Duck talking
@@membersataniccabal.coronau804 Maybe turn the clarifier knob a bit...
Hi Peter, I use a fishing rod with ten meters wire as antenna, in QRP and a manual antenna tuner, I'd like to try a wire antenna with 49:1 balun soon, thank for your advice 73 de iu7bsh op. Marco
Sounds great!