I would like to monitor NCDXF beacons, and WSPR. What kind of antenna would be good for reception in the bands of 6, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20M?
Some antennas I considered:
- A trapped dipole, with traps for each band. This could get tricky with the close proximity of the frequencies.
- A fan dipole. Doable, but I've tried a couple of times to build one without success.
- A vertical with an active tuner: a bunch of coils and capacitors, to match the multiple bands. I can build this with some relays and arduino, but I'd rather have a passive receiver.
- A loop, but as far as I know, these are single band and very narrow.
- A Random Wire: tried one, with a 1:9 balun. Reception wasn't great anywhere.
- That 20M dipole I no longer use, and hope for the best
My goal is to be able to monitor propagation at my QTH, and have a reasonable idea of the conditions, without relying on propagation report websites like WSPRnet or similar.
If possible, I'd also like to be able to transmit WSPR, that's why a resonant antenna with reasonable SWR would be desired, but this isn't a priority for me.