ANTENNAS

Regardless of where you live.

You can transmit with just about anything!

Obviously some antennas are better than others!

That's why "ANTENNAS" are my favorite Subject in Ham Radio.

In this section you will find descriptions of antennas I have 

    personally built and used (and liked) over the years.

There may be one or two suggestions where I point out an antenna 

that I have not tried myself, but I will clearly tell you

if I have not actually had personal experience with it.

"THE BEST ANTENNA":  There ain't no such animal !

Never listen to anyone who claims to have found "the best antenna."

Our needs, requirements, and local environments are simply too diverse

for one antenna to solve them all.

If someone tells you he has found the best antenna, ask him a simple question:

"The best antenna for what?"

When it comes to antennas,  it's horses for courses.

REALY GOOD ANTENNAS do not cover lots of bands.  Most cover only one, some cover a few.  In the section on Vertical Antennas, you will find mostly monoband antennas.  They only cover one band, but they are VERY good at it.

In My Favorite Antennas section, you will find several multi-band antennas.  All of these are compromise antennas, but for most of us, a compromise antenna is of greater value than a good monoband antenna.

YOUR Favorite Antenna?  Well that will depend on many things:  Where do you live?  In the city or in the country? What do you wish to do?  Work DX, or work local contacts who speak your language?  Both?  AND, how much money are you willing to spend on our antenna system?

THE PROBLEM WITH [many] ANTENNA EXPERTS:

A lot of experts have memorized the text book theory, but haven't actually built even half of the stuff they talk about.  Unfortunately nobody has yet written a text book that shows us how to use modern light-weight material for building antennas.  If you build antennas like many experts recommend (the old way), and then try to hang them on your nice new telescoping fiberglass pole, you will probably break the pole the first time you use it.

My web site is focused on building antennas the new way:  using lightweight, low-cost material for erecting antennas higher than people were able to go in the past when using traditional, heavier material of a similar price.

Most of the simple wire antennas described here were designed from the ground up to be light-weight and usable with light-weight telescoping fiberglass poles.  Of course you can also hang them on your older heavy steel or aluminum mast if you wish.

Note: the Yagi antennas may NOT be mounted on these telescoping fiberglass poles.

Despite a very small amount of loss from using thin wire instead of thick aluminum or heavier copper wire, the additional height enables average people to have a BIG SIGNAL without spending lots of money on their antennas.

THERE IS A PERFECT ANTENNA FOR EVERYONE!   The challenge is to find it.  

Most Hams are Antenna-Handicapped in one way or another.  Most of us face many challenges to building our dream antenna farm:  lack of space, unfriendly neighbors, local laws and regulations, or simply lack of finances for building the perfect antenna.  Never-the-less, there's still hope for everyone!

"HF SOLUTIONS for all locations"

This is the name of an excellent antenna book written by Les Moxon, G6XN (SK), and published by RSGB in 1982.   Although this book was very technical, indeed too technical for most new hams to understand, the ideas put forth by Moxon were invaluable.  He proposed all kinds of antennas for all kinds of locations.  Something for everyone.

My Web Site will show you practical implementations of several of Moxon's ideas.

NOW ON TO THE ANTENNAS

Since my web site allows only 3 levels of sub pages, I have created multiple main pages for antennas:

* * * READ ME FIRST * * *