Simple Ham Radio Antennas

This week, I'm exploring the joys of 30 meters and the antennas that support this intriguing amateur radio band. Last week, I built a simple 30 meter inverted vee antenna which continues to deliver outstanding performance. Today, I decided to try a 30 meter ground plane antenna, consisting of a main vertical element and four sloping radials.  Many antenna experts believe that sloping the radial elements by 45 degrees will produce a better match for 50 ohm coaxial cable feed lines. Although my sloping radials don't come off the connector at 45 degrees,  they do seem to produce a usable match for my RG-8X feedline.  Any mismatch is corrected by my standby antenna transmatch--an old MFJ-941 E Versa Tuner. According to "searchmobilecomputing.tectarget.com", a ground plane "is a variant of the dipole antenna designed for use with an unbalanced feed line such as coaxial cable.  It resembles a coaxial antenna whose lower section consists of straight elements call