Random Wire antennas presentation. Post 1869.

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Terry Snyder (WB3BKN) gave this excellent program at the 18 November 2018 meeting of the Harrisburg Radio Amateurs Club.  Terry covers a wide range of random wire issues, including lengths to avoid, grounding, radial systems, and feed line choices.  In addition to giving the lengths to avoid in random wire antennas, he provides a list of recommended wire lengths that should be easy to match with your antenna coupler (i.e. "tuner") and ground radial system.

Although Terry's presentation is well-done and easily understandable, I've found it simpler to follow two basic practices for random wire antennas.

If you're designing a wire antenna for a single band, make the wire 1/4 wavelength for your preferred frequency.  If you want 80 through 10 meter coverage, build an End Fed Half Wave (EFHW) antenna instead, using a 49:1 balun/antenna "tuner" combination coupled to a 1/2 wavelength antenna for your 80 meter frequency.  This antenna should cover amateur radio frequencies from 80 meters to 10 meters.

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http://www.HawaiiARRL.info.
http://www.arrl.org.
http://www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news (a weekly podcast which is updated each Friday afternoon).
https://oahuarrlnews.wordpress.com.
https://hamradiohawaii.wordpress.com.
https://bigislandarrlnews.com.
https://www.eham.net.
http://www.southgatearc.org.

Thanks for joining us today.

Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).