Questions tagged [wire-antenna]
Anything to do with wire antennas, including how to build one, how different wire antennas perform, how to tune them or when to use a balun, and what types of wire work best in certain antennas.
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Possible reasons why I only receive FM broadcast via SDR
My setup is the following:
terratec SDR dongle directly plugged into my laptop
the dongle shows up in gqrx as Realtek RTL2838UHIDH
coax cable out to the balcony, not laid in any loops
via an adapter, ...
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Does an End-Fed Antenna need to be straight?
Typical yard and wondering if I can go out a window, to a tree, turn to another tree, turn to another tree simply trying to achieve the length required for 80m band? One video stated it doesn't need ...
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Using NanoVNA to tune antenna
I'm extremely new to this, so I'm mostly asking for tutorials and so on.
I have tried configuring the device according to one tutorial I found. When I hook up the cheap antennas that came with a ...
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How to splice a 12 gauge, stranded wire to a ladder-line stranded wire?
I am building a zs6bkw dipole using a ladder-lock. For mechanical strength, I am looping the 12 gauge wire, as in the image below, and swaging it. The next step is to join the thick antenna wire to ...
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What kind of crimp part is used for stress relief on dipole?
I like the way that the person provides stress relief for the dipole antenna wire in the following image. However, I cannot figure out what kind of crimp "device" they are using for making ...
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Would it be possible to light up a bulb wired one side to a transmitting antenna?
Would a light bulb light up if wired to the end on an antenna ?
If you would connect a light bulb on one of its poles to a quarter wave antenna like
in the schematics below, would the bulb light up ...
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communicating with France from Oregon
Newbie ham here. My stepdaughter in France is interested in off-grid communication with us in Oregon, and so I am looking into what that would take. If I knew what frequency bands would be best I ...
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Help designing a random wire antenna to work with my tuner
I recently picked up an Icom M802 marine HF radio that includes ham bands and an Icom AT-140 antenna tuner. I have a ham license, but have been away from HF for many years and have never used a random ...
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Is Army surplus steel wire suitable for an antenna?
I have a whole spool of military communications steel wire that I've been thinking about using to string up a doublet. We used this stuff when I was in the 138th Signal Btn and let me tell you, it's ...
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Is an off-center fed dipole (and/or doublet) inherently unbalanced?
Does a balun/choke have to "work harder" in an off-center fed dipole than when the feedpoint is at the center? Or do the standing waves that develop keep the antenna balanced electrically ...
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How to best ditch the counterpoise of a random wire antenna?
The "ground" has several effects on antennas, most of them negative (see e.g. Why does an HF "monopole" need dozens and dozens of radials while a VHF/UHF "ground plane" ...
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Is a 94' dipole antenna fed directly by coax useful for any particular known purpose?
I'm trying to figure out an old handmade antenna I picked up at a swap meet a few years back. It is a dipole (or "doublet"?) that is both made of coax but also fed by a length of built in ...
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Are "end-fed" antennas really more multi-band than dipoles?
Several "end fed" antenna kits (including the ARRL's for example) include wording suggesting that they are useful as multi-band antennas.
But does feeding a wire antenna highly off-center ...
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Can fanned/parallel endfed antennas be used to get higher gain in some directions?
I have two pieces of antenna wire which are roughly 10 m long, with banana plugs at the ends, which I bring to hang in the trees when operating portable. I also bring a 49:1 unun and hopes that my ...
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End fed long wire antenna for 40 meters length
I have a hex beam antenna that gets me onto bands from 20 meters to 6 meters very well.
I wish to have an antenna that gets me onto 40 meters at night very well also.
Recently I purchased an end fed ...
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Issues with high SWR on HF Kits EFHW 49:1 UnUn kit
I recently tried assembling a EFHW kit, and some problems came up in testing. I believe this is the kit; I bought it through ARRL: HF Kits website. This is my first time making an UnUn and EFHW kit.
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Where can I find information regarding RESONANT long wire antennas?
So multiples (by 3x-5x) of full wave lengths long? It's my understanding that you can build an antenna that is 802.28 feet long and it's naturally resonant WITH GAIN on all the usual Field Day ...
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Can I convert an inline 1:1 CMC into a balun feed for a dipole?
I built my first 1:1 CMC transformer recently using 100 ohm CAT5e pairs in parallel. I used an FT-114-43 with 9 turns on each side and squeezed it into a small box with female coax connectors. I plan ...
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Is it ok to use a length of wire as an RX only antenna to test my new radio?
I have almost finished building my first shortwave transceiver kit (mcHF). Remarkably it's fired up and not gone up in a puff of smoke. The kit still needs some finishing off and I need to decide on ...
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How bad is it to make dipole elements slightly helical?
I'm looking to make a dipole for 10 M. TX power won't be more than 10 W, likely less than 1 initially, but I would prefer that it be reasonably good performance for reception.
EDIT:
After a ...
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What kind of wire would be good for a 160m - 40m fan dipole?
I want to know the best copper wire or tinned copper wire for a fan dipole for 160, 75, 40 meters. It would be coax fed and I would like it to handle 1500 watts or more. I would like 65/30 strands of ...
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Do these look like amateur radio antennas?
I am planning to move into a new apartment, and of course would like to install a HF antenna there, on the roof if possible.
Today I noticed a small Yagi antenna on the roof of the building , more ...
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If I tie antenna wire in a knot, will there be damage to the wire?
I'm building HF kits 80m EFHW kit, and in the instructions it directs you to tie a knot in the antenna wire. I'm concerned of damage to the wire. I have found no source as of yet that indicates if ...
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Common-mode choke (CMC) hurting my SWR. Live with it? Drop the choke?
I have been using a Par EndFedz Mk2 Trail Friendly 40/20/10 though using the matchbox from an EndFedz EF-QUAD (with Vibroplex’s blessing) so I could transmit at more than 25W. On all three bands I ...
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can i convert an FM coaxial antenna to just speaker wire?
I have a Sony MHC-GX450 compact mini stereo system. The connector for the FM antenna is coaxial, and is labeled 75 Ω. I'm wondering if somehow I can use speaker wire for the FM antenna.
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How does the material of a fishing-pole mast affect antenna performance?
I'm a newly-licenced ham and currently starting out with HF.
My home doesn't allow for a permanent setup. I can therefore only operate portable from parks and such, with limited TX power (my rig goes ...
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What gauge of winding wire will be "invisible" but sturdy as an antenna?
I plan to build a receive-only longwire/Beverage antenna. The wire will be at least 40m/120' long and strewn at about 7m/21' above ground. Tried "regular" thin insulated wire but it was an ...
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Is there such thing as a center-fed longwire?
I want to make a longwire/Beverage receive antenna that will work on a wide range of bands (80-10m or wider). I've got a place where I can put a wire of at least 50m/150'. The only problem is — the ...
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Isolated linearly loaded antenna?
Is there a name or common descriptive term for a linearly loaded dipole or end-fed, where a (near) parallel loading element or elements are not connected (galvanically isolated) to the fed element or ...
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What type of Cable Should I use between a Long Wire antenna and a Transmatch?
I installed a Yaesu System 600with a MFJ Versatuner 2 on my 31ft sailboat and Idont know what type of cable should I use between the MFJ and the long wire antenna I have on my back Stay.
Any ...
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Using crocodile clips to make modular QRP antennas? Are there downsides?
I'm trying to get into backpacking QRP, which has lead me to read up on various ways to construct very portable wire antennas. I would ideally like to have a single antenna for the CW parts of the 40, ...
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Antenna options
I am considering a new ham station in a relatively urban environment on the South coast of England, and would like like some ideas / feedback on antenna options.
Aim is to get reasonable performance ...
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How is phone cable with iron called?
In in Russia I saw a phone cable called "field cable" (провод полевой П-274-М). It is a loosely twisted pair with some iron strains added alongside with copper ones.
I tried to lookup ...
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Troubleshooting the MFJ 1982 EFHW
I am a beginner with not much experience in HF. My shack consists of a Xiegu G90 connected with 20ft of RG-8x to an MFJ 1982 end fed half wave antenna. There is a small coil of coax next to the ...
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How does end loops on a long wire antenna affect antenna length
I've put up a "random" length long wire antenna for HF in my yard at about 124ish feet about 15' off the ground. I got this length from an online resource. Here's my questions:
How does the ...
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Electromagnetic signal from spark gap
I am a power electrical engineer college student, and I have a project to make an antenna for magnetic direction finding.
My main topic is to detect lightning strikes, but its to hard due to ...
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Long wire antenna end fed random length folded back on incline
Trying to lengthen my 10mtr. end fed to 39 metres in length. To do this I need the first leg (10mtr.) to run at a lower height approx (5mtr)turning back on a dog leg, and the final 29 meters then ...
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horizontal EFHW antenna attached to gutter
I'm brainstorming methods of mounting an EFHW. Unfortunately, I have no trees, so I'm considering a horizontal gutter mount which would afford me about 70 feet. Is this workable or should I consider a ...
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What is the optimum length for a random longwire on 10m?
I have all the space in the world and wish to errect a single random longwire to use on the 10 meter band only.
I understand that once such a wire is very long, losses associated with the wire itself (...
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How to calculate of shielded loop antenna correction factor without extra antenna measurements
A lot of article about 60 cm shielded loop antennas and how to measure antenna factor using antennas with already known antenna factor.
But for example if I have one shielded loop antenna (...
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Loop a long wire antenna or EFHW
For a typical EFHW antenna, let's say we are in a very space-restricted environment, says a hotel room.
I am thinking of the idea loop around the wire around the room, maybe even many loops.
This is ...
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Multi-turn large/full-wave loop antennas?
There seem to be lots of descriptions and/or articles on using multiple turns of conducting element in small magnetic loop antennas (STLs). But I haven't found any information on full size full wave ...
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Should I bother with a doublet if I can't go straight to the tuner with open wire?
I have two trees about 135 feet apart and about 55 to 65 feet tall. I have been trying to determine which kind of wire antenna to put up there.
Initially I was considering either a fan dipole or ...
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Relative disadvantages of impedance mismatch vs. non-resonant length wire antenna
So given a choice between a non-resonant length of wire antenna center fed by 50 Ohm coax, or a resonant length of wire fed highly off-center by 50 Ohm coax, or a resonant length of wire fed by high ...
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Modelling a "fan dipole" or "fan inverted vee" using EZNEC - unexpected result
I plan to put up a "fan inverted vee" but for various reasons I will not be able to take it down, adjust wire lengths, put it up, test, etc: I will basically have to cut the wires, put it up and leave ...
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How do I tune my EFHW 40-10 to have the lowest SWR in the 40, 20 and 15 meter bands?
This is a reading from my RigExpert AA-35 ZOOM of my EFHW 40-10 inverted L with radials, and feedpoint 2 feet above the ground. Any thoughts as to how I can tune or move this antenna to get the ...
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Why can't we use a simple wire for receiving 2.4 GHz signals?
I wanted to build a small drone of my own as a hobby project. My old drones were broken so I wanted to salvage as much as I could to build a small indoor one. I wanted to use an Arduino, however, I am ...
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Can I splice a random wire antenna?
I have an Icom AH-4 with a random wire antenna. I have a fence around my property that is 60 feet long by 70 feet wide. The outdoor tuner is placed at the begining of the 60 foot section which leads ...
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What is the radiation pattern of an ~60 foot end fed wire antenna used for 40 meters?
I live in a retirement center. The rule here is “Never do anything anywhere at anytime.” That translates to “No Antennas” which I have been told means I can put out an antenna as long as it is ...
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4:1 Balun question
With an OCF dipole, does it matter which leg, short or long, is connected to which side of the 4:1 balun, hot(coax center) or shield? How can you tell which is which, the balun is not marked. Thank ...
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