Simple Ham Radio Antennas

For my first project of the New Year, I decided to build a simple dipole antenna that could be used at the home QTH or at some portable location, such as a public park or a club Field Day. Although, I've built many dipole antennas, I felt a review of some basic antenna theory would "clear out some of the rust" incurred over the New Year's Eve celebration. I found this interesting video antenna tutorial from http://www.antenna-theory.com. The instruction was very clear and the basic forumlas were explained in plain language. This video would make good supplementary study material for those desiring an amateur radio license. In the end, I opted for a simple 40/15 meter inverted vee supported by a 33 foot/10.06 meters telescoping fiberglass mast. My feedline was some RG-8X I had stored in the garage of my vacation home in the Puna District of Hawaii Island. The antenna works very well on 40 and 15 meters. I have also fed the antenna with 450-ohm ladder line con...

An excellent video guide to building, erecting, and maintaining a simple 80-10 meter loop antenna . Lynn (NG9D) covers the basics in a short, well-produced video that can be applied to many home situations. With careful attention to detail and choice of wire, the antenna is fairly stealthy--something of concern to many of us "penned in" by neighbors and nearby buildings. Lynn uses commonly available RG-58 and RG-59 for the feedline. If you can't find two tall supports, try designing the antenna as a delta loop. A tall tree limb or a telescoping fiberglass mast could serve as the apex of the loop. If space is a concern, you could build the loop for 40-10 meter coverage. If you're worried about high SWR on the coax, feed the loop in a bottom corner with 450-ohm ladder line . Run the ladder line to a balanced antenna tuner or to a 4:1 balun. Fifty-ohm coax would then run from the balun to your antenna transmatch (tuner) and onto your rig. Either way, the ...