Simple Ham Radio Antennas

If you have some time on a long weekend, you may want to try this interesting 3-band trap vertical from Dave Turlock (KG0ZZ). The antenna covers 20, 15, and 10 meters. Most of the materials can be found at your local hardware or building supply store. In part 1, Dave Also includes how to tune coaxial traps using the MFJ grid dip meter. This is a nicely crafted antenna that will bring you hours of fun on the upper HF bands. Dave has more information on programs 2,3, and 4. Stay tuned. For the latest Amateur Radio news and events, please check out the blog sidebars. These news feeds are updated frequently. You can follow our blog community with a free e-mail subscription or by tapping into the blog RSS feed. If you have trouble viewing this video, please enter this URL in your browser:  https://youtu.be/SKcGN0P1Xjs.  Thanks for joining us today! Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).

A beautifully produced introduction to the world of Amateur Radio written and narrated by K1AN. This video was made for UNESCO and the World Genesis Foundation. The video discusses the many possibilities Amateur Radio offers for learning, safety, security, and emergency communications. The video takes us through a brief history of communications technology and then into the many exciting opportunities that the world of Amateur Radio offers. This video would make an effective prelude to a formal Amateur Radio Licensing class. I enjoyed this video. For the latest Amateur Radio news and events, please check out the blog sidebars. These news feeds are updated daily. You can follow our blog community with a free e-mail subscription or by tapping into the blog RSS feed. If you have difficulty viewing this video, please insert the following URL into your web browser: https://youtu.be/ivUMIADFSDw. Thanks for joining us today! Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).

An excellent tutorial on center loaded dipole antennas fed with ladder line from Stan Gibilisco (W1GV). He begins with a simple explanation of a center fed dipole fed with coaxial cable and then transitions to the same antenna fed with ladder line. If you cut your dipole for the lowest frequency of choice, say somewhere in the 40 meter band, and feed the antenna with ladder line into a balanced tuner (or through a 4:1 balun into your regular "tuner"), you could use the antenna for any amateur radio frequency from 40 meters through 10 meters. If you feed the dipole with coaxial cable, you would have a mono band antenna which could be used on the third harmonic of the fundamental frequency. A properly designed 40 meter antenna cut for the lower portion of the 40 meter band would do fairly well in the SSB portion of 15 meters. But, for other bands, the coax-fed dipole antenna would experience high SWR. This antenna is simple to build, erect, and use. For the latest Amateu

Nice video by inventor Ian Soutar on the "Rattail Antenna Booster & Emergency Communication." Soutar claims the small pocket-sized device will double the range of your 2 meter VHF handheld transceiver. Soutar says the Booster "makes a capacitive coupling to the radio that has a low resistance." The device shares certain characteristics with what some Amateur Radio operators call a "Tiger Tail Antenna." This type of antenna is a quarter wavelength wire cut for 2 meters and attached at the base of the stock "Rubber Duckie" antenna that came with your HT. The "Tiger Tail" supplies the missing half of the vertical antenna and makes the stock antenna more efficient. The "Rattail Antenna Booster" works in a similar fashion. The "Rattail Antenna Booster" was invented by Ian Soutar, Ed Haslam, Barbara Soutar, and Jim Rawlings of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The cost of the "Rattail Antenna B

If you have difficulty viewing this video, please enter the title link into your browser search bar: https://youtu.be/qbje13U6hC4. Here's a fairly simple antenna project that will get you on the exciting 6 meter Amateur Radio band. The video tutorial by Claude Jollet is clear, well-produced, and easy to follow. Jollet says his 6 meter folded dipole antenna is "made of ladder line; the feed line is ladder line; and (is) matched with a step down 4:1 coaxial balun at the bottom of the transmission line." He says the antenna is cut to resonate at 50.4 MHz and shows a SWR of 1.3 to 1.0 between 50.0 MHz and 51.0 MHz. Good luck on "The Magic Band." For the latest Amateur Radio news and events, please check out the blog sidebars. These news feeds are updated daily. You can follow our blog community with a free e-mail subscription or by tapping into the blog RSS feed. Thanks for joining us today! Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).

A basic, simple dipole that will get you on the air quickly. As commenters have mentioned, cut the antenna a bit longer for each element (2) to allow for trimming and SWR adjustment. If you want to use this antenna for both 40 and 15 meters without adding outrigger sections, cut the 40 meter elements for the low CW frequencies and the antenna will work on the third harmonic for the SSB portion of 15 meters. Most antenna transmatches ("tuners") will be able to handle the small mismatch in the antenna for each band. When I built one of these antennas, I cut the 40 meter portion for 7.088 Mhz (the Hawaii Afternoon net frequency). The antenna was pretty well matched at 21.264 MHz in the SSB part of the 15 meter band. Of course, you could cut the antenna for 40 meters and feed the dipole with 450 ohm ladder line into a 4:1 balun and then into your antenna tuner for coverage between 40 and 10 meters. Either way, the basic 40 meter dipole is a nice performer if you can get i

An excellent tutorial on the simple physics of a Yagi Antenna from Electrical Engineer Diana Eng. Her use of a lightbulb to to show the effect of reflectors and directors on a dipole antenna is especially good. Although the video is a bit dated (03 February 2010), the basic information is still good. This video would make an excellent introduction to directional antennas for a Technician Class License workshop. For the latest Amateur Radio news and events, please check out the blog sidebars. These news feeds are updated daily. You can follow our blog community with a free e-mail subscription or by tapping into the blog RSS feed. Thanks for joining us today! Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM.