Simple Ham Radio Antennas

With the ARRL Field Day coming on 22-23 June 2013, there are plenty of antenna ideas floating around cyberspace.  Part of the fun of Field Day is the erecting of familiar antennas such as dipoles, verticals, loops, and hexbeams.  Now and then, a three or four element beam is pressed into service thanks to a generous club member, some fiberglass and metal tower sections always seem to appear, or even a "cherry picker" truck loaned by a service-minded company such as a tree trimming business, the telephone company, or the local cable company makes an appearance.  A good antenna raising team can put a formidable tower and beam into the air in a matter of a few minutes. But what happens when you operate a Field Day station as a single operator, single transmitter entry with no other team members to help you?  You are the antenna raiser, the cook, the tent builder, and the over taxed operator.  Don't dispair.  With a little planning, you can pre-assemble a simple antenna th

The ARRL's Field Day is coming Saturday and Sunday, 22-23 June 2013.  Thousands of amateur radio operators in the USA and Canada will be trying to establish contact with fellow amateurs around the world in one of the oldest emergency communications exercises in existence. Although many amateur radio operators will be joining their clubs at public parks, schools, and public safety buildings for the exercise, many amateurs, including yours truly, will be operating from our homes and even our work sites.  For those of us running in the single operator, single station category, our Field Day group belongs to us only...we are responsible for everything in our portable or home stations.  That means all antenna, cooking, and sleeping responsibilities fall on us.  Although I enjoy working with my amateur radio club (The Big Island Amateur Radio Club), there are times when I can't  drive out to the Field Day site and must work alone. With that in mind, it pays to "pre-arrange&

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be describing some of the simple amateur radio antennas suitable for the ARRL 2013 Field Day Communications exercise.  These antennas will be transportable for remote operations, easy to build, easy to take down, and will offer good performance under "field" conditions.  Most of the materials for these antennas can be found in the nearest hardware or home building supply outlet. When you are done using these antennas for field day, store them in your shack for future use.  If these antennas perform well for you, consider erecting them on your property for regular contacts with your ham friends. In my last post, I described a sloping dipole fed by 450-ohm ladder line.  Along with its associated 4:1 balun and a hefty antenna transmatch ("tuner"), this antenna rendered service on 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters.  I still use my sloping dipole when I operate on the weekends at a public park or some deserted pasture above my

The ARRL (American Radio Relay League) 2013 Field Day is set for Saturday and Sunday, 22 June through 23 June 2013.  This is one of the biggest emergency communications exercises in the country and it attracts thousands of amateur radio operators to field day sites throughout the United States and Canada.  Many DX stations around the world participate in this event, so, if it's DX you're looking for, Field Day may just be the place for you. Because of work or family responsibilities, many amateur radio operators can't join their clubs at a Field Day site.  Instead, these amateur will operate from their homes, using a variety of emergency power configurations, ranging from generators to solar-charged batteries.  Amateur radio operators specializing in emergency communications will run stations from civil defense headquarters, police stations, and even public schools. Field Day will give you a taste of an intense, but fun operating experience without the comforts of home

Over the past few days, mother Nature has released a torrent of heavy showers over the Hamakua Coast of Hawaii Island, making outdoor antenna work very wet and potentially dangerous.  When the weather turns bad, I usually lower all my verticals and inverted vees to ground level, disconnect antenna feed lines, and unplug my rig from the electrical mains.  I usually run my station off of deep-cycle marine batteries charged by photovoltaic panels, but sometimes, I use the electrical grid to run a bit more power (i.e. more than 50 watts) from my venerable Swan 100-MX. During today's passing showers, I decided to revive one of my old indoor antennas, a 10, 15, and 20 meter segmented dipole fed by a short piece of 50-ohm cable (RG-58).  This certainly isn't a new idea.  I've used the concept for outdoor antennas as well.  You can choose which of these bands to use by clipping or unclipping dipole segments.  AK7M and NV5I have published versions of this antenna in various ARRL