I am using the maco 5/8 ground plane. I can tune it with my ldg 7000 and ic-7000 on 6 meter, 11 meter, and everything down to 20 meter. it is set for lowest swr on 10 meter where I want the best match.
AP
AP
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What is your primary radio antenna?
- Thread starter Happy_Hamer
- Start date
Being entirely honest, I goofed when I 'voted'. I said 'horizontal', but since I haven't gotten the HF stuff back in the air yet, I should have said 'vertical' (VHF/UHF). Two vertical VHF/UHF antennas at the moment, a 'Comet' for 2 and 440, and a home made 'J'-pole for the same two bands. Being naturally cheap, I hate to say that the 'J'-pole does about as well as the 'Comet'.
I like wire antennas for HF. That's because they are easy to make, don't cost much, and I can usually make them 'fit' in the space I have available. And since I have a very nice tuner, I can usually make them 'work' where ever I think I need to, sort of. Are they the 'best'? Just depends on how you look at it. For my purposes, yes. In absolute terms of performance, probably not. But then, they've done well for me so far, and sometimes much better than expected.
I think I've either tried, or listened to just about every kind of antenna I've ever heard of. There are a few that I'd really like to try again, but that's where 'lazy' and 'chicken' sort of come in, you know? One, called a 'CCD' (Controlled Capacitance Distribution), was honestly very surprising. As long as you didn't 'fold' it back on it's self, it would work pretty well any way you laid it out. That means laying on the ground too, by the way. It's sort of complicated, uses capacitors and short sections of wire, a bunch of them. Definitely not easy to make, and dang sure ain't 'free'. Typically worked pretty good from the design frequency and up (tuner and ladder line). Some day, when you have some $$$ burning a hole in your pocket and you're really bored, make one, see for your self. (Boy, am I gonna get a cussing for that one!
)
- 'Doc
I like wire antennas for HF. That's because they are easy to make, don't cost much, and I can usually make them 'fit' in the space I have available. And since I have a very nice tuner, I can usually make them 'work' where ever I think I need to, sort of. Are they the 'best'? Just depends on how you look at it. For my purposes, yes. In absolute terms of performance, probably not. But then, they've done well for me so far, and sometimes much better than expected.
I think I've either tried, or listened to just about every kind of antenna I've ever heard of. There are a few that I'd really like to try again, but that's where 'lazy' and 'chicken' sort of come in, you know? One, called a 'CCD' (Controlled Capacitance Distribution), was honestly very surprising. As long as you didn't 'fold' it back on it's self, it would work pretty well any way you laid it out. That means laying on the ground too, by the way. It's sort of complicated, uses capacitors and short sections of wire, a bunch of them. Definitely not easy to make, and dang sure ain't 'free'. Typically worked pretty good from the design frequency and up (tuner and ladder line). Some day, when you have some $$$ burning a hole in your pocket and you're really bored, make one, see for your self. (Boy, am I gonna get a cussing for that one!
)- 'Doc
Workman UVS-300 vertical omni for 2M/70CM
Diamond DJ130 discone for MURS/GMRS/6M and VHF/UHF monitoring
Imax-2000 for 10/11/12/15M
W5GI wire collinear array for 17/20/40/80M and SWL/BCB monitoring
Antennacraft ST-2 "Scantenna" for VHF/UHF monitoring
Winradio ARX2B indoor active log periodic for VHF/UHF monitoring
Diamond DJ130 discone for MURS/GMRS/6M and VHF/UHF monitoring
Imax-2000 for 10/11/12/15M
W5GI wire collinear array for 17/20/40/80M and SWL/BCB monitoring
Antennacraft ST-2 "Scantenna" for VHF/UHF monitoring
Winradio ARX2B indoor active log periodic for VHF/UHF monitoring
