80 Meter Half Square. Post #1170.

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If you spend much of your operating time contacting certain sections of the world, you may want to design and build a half square antenna for your favorite band.  I've used half square antennas for 20,15, and 10 meters with good results. At these frequencies, construction of this phased, bidirectional vertical antenna is fairly simple and can be aimed in the direction of your choice.  A theoretical gain of 3dB is possible, making the half square a worthwhile experiment.

In this post, Don Johnson (N4DJ) takes the half square a step further by building and using an 80 meter version of this antenna.  In the 80 meter band, this antenna can be quite large, often necessitating extra help in building and aiming the antenna in the preferred direction.  If you're willing to spend some time building this antenna, the rewards will pay off in a low radiation angle (around 15 degrees) and more contacts.  The half square antenna can be a valued part of your antenna "farm."

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http://www.HawaiiARRL.info.
https://oahuarrlnews.wordpress.com.
https://bigislandarrlnews.com.
http://www.kh6jrm.info (Amateur Radio News & Information).
http://www.arrl.org
http://www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news (weekly podcast issued each Friday).

Other sites of interest:

http://hawaiisciencedigest.com (science and technology news for radio amateurs).
https://hawaiiintelligencedigest.com (trends in geopolitical intelligence and cybersecurity).
https://paper.li/f-1482109921 (my daily intelligence briefing).

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Opinions expressed in this blog are mine unless otherwise stated.

Thanks for joining us today.

Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM)