Simple Ham Radio Antennas

I knew it would happen.  The time I ran out of antenna wire.  After several years of using old #14 AWG house wire, #18 AWG speaker wire from Radio Shack , and remnants from studio wiring projects at my former employer (Pacific Radio Group), I had finally exhausted my wire supply for homebrewed antennas.  What to do until the next sale at Lowe's, Home Depot , and Ace Hardware?  Give up? Banish the thought!. With last week's beautiful weekend before me, I needed some cheap wire to erect my latest antenna "masterpiece."  I found my resource in the kitchen in the form of a new roll of "Diamond Aluminum Foil"--the stuff my xyl uses for cooking tasty treats and dinners.  Since there were several new rolls near the stove, I decided to "borrow" a new roll and apologize later.  Besides, I would buy another roll the next time I visited the supermarket. According to the label on the container, the roll contained 66.66 yards (199.98 feet) or 60.96 meters...

Building wire antennas is one of the few amateur radio activities that remains fairly inexpensive.  Your nearest hardware store or home improvement outlet is chocked full of wire, connectors, pvc pipe, copper tubing, and basic tools to launch your antenna building efforts. Whether you make simple dipoles, inverted vees, loops, or even directional vertical arrays, the satisfaction of having built something that links you to your fellow amateurs around the world is beyond compare.  If the antenna doesn't meet your expectations, you can salvage most of your material and try again.  It's all part of a continuing educational experience that can last a lifetime.  Add to this mix a few simple transceiver kits or accessories and you have something that will be your faithful radio companion for many years. I approach my antenna "adventures" with that sort of mindset, and I'm always on the lookout for intriguing antenna ideas that I can modify for my own use. Such wa...