Building antennas has long been a major part of our hobby. A 3 db antenna gain equals doubling your transmitter’s power and also increases the received signal. It’s not too hard to achieve this with an antenna – see the hundreds of designs available through this page.
Be sure to read this website’s pages about Ladder Line and Antenna/Downlead lengths, as well as Antenna Tuners and the SWR pages. All this works together to create an efficient and effective antenna system.
<< This is a very lengthy page so use this hyperlinked table of contents to jump to a subject area: >>
| Antenna Publications (Many!) | ARRL’s “More About Antenna Tuners” (a link) |
| Cebik (W4RNL, SK) Antenna Information | Tuning Your Tuner |
| Antenna Orientation | Vintage Receivers (Antenna Input) |
| Radials (Grounding Systems) | |
| Baluns (lots of articles) | Miscellaneous Antennas |
| Twinlead Transmission Lines | The Most Simple Antennas |
| Useful Antenna Instruments | 630 Meter Antennas |
| Antenna Tuner Information | W4NPN’s Simple Antennas |
The 1974 ARRL Antenna Book can be found here
The ARRL “Basic Antennas” book is available here
Between 1985 and 2002, the ARRL produced a seven-volume series of books on antennas. These are likely the most comprehensive source of antenna information for amateurs that has ever been produced. Here they are:
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 1
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 2
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 3
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 4
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 5
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 6
ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 7
ARRL’s “Wire Antennas for the Beginner” book might be of interest to those just beginning in the hobby.
ARRL’s “More Wire Antenna Classics” is an excellent choice for wire antenna afficionados.
K8CH has written chapter 20 of the ARRL handbook, which is all about antennas. It’s an easy read, not too technical and extremely informative.
A huge compendium of wire antenna information can be found in the book by Edward Noll, W3FQI. I believe this book is now public access and you can read it on line or download it from this link: 73 Dipole and Long-wire Antennas
Want to erect a “long wire” antenna? VE3EEK (SK) did a lot of research into suitable lengths and this Ham Universe link will reveal them and a lot more information. The recommended lengths (in feet; multiply by 0.3048 for meters) are: 29 35.5 41 58 71 84 107 119 148 203 347 407 423
Don’t forget a counterpoise!
Antenna Information by Cebik (W4RNL, SK):
Here is a paper by Cebik about Inverted Vee antennas. Important to note is his research into the apex angle and how this angle and height above ground affect the takeoff angle and therefore how useful for DX such an antenna is.
Cebik also provides an excellent analysis and design parameters for the all-band Doublet antenna.
ON5AU has provided a Cebik analysis about constructing an all-band Bobtail Curtain that has good gain, directivity, and a low takeoff angle on 40 meters and is also usable on the other HF bands.
Much (perhaps all?) of Cebik’s work has been incorporated into the Antentop web page. Some of his work on ground systems can be found here. This site is worth exploring in detail.
What direction should my antenna face? Erecting an antenna that “focuses” on a particular direction requires knowing what compass heading to point at. Fortunately, VU2NSB makes this easy. Just plug in a properly formatted Maidenhead Grid number and up will pop all the compass headings you might want.
K9YC has a lot of good information about 43 foot verticals and other antenna subjects.
PG1N’s Wire Antenna page provides many examples of simple wire antennas that work well.
G4ILO’s Stealth Antenna website is a good, informative read, if you live in a situation where outside antennas are prohibited or difficult to erect.
The Ham Universe website has a lot of information about wire antenna lengths and more.
YO3DAC’s website contains 418 antenna articles!
W8JI analyzes the performance of Rhombics, Inverted Vees and Vee-beam antennas.
A very simple antenna is an L-shaped doublet-type antenna, consisting of a 30-33 foot vertical element and a similar 30-33 foot horizontal (bottom) element, fed in the center, like a dipole). Get this as high as you can and feed it with 300 or 450 ohm twinlead (don’t use a resonant length!) to a 1:1 current (Guanella) balun at your antenna tuner. No radials are required (it’s a dipole on 40M and a non-resonant doublet on bands higher than that). This works quite well, used as a multi-band doublet. The exact length depends on whether you want to focus on 40M CW (33 feet) or the upper end of the band for SSB (30-31 feet).
You could also double those lengths, resulting in 60-66 foot vertical and horizontal elements. Now it’s a dipole on 80 meters and a doublet on the rest of the bands. But it would require a very high tree to hang it from. The bottom horizontal element should be a minimum of 10 feet above ground and higher than that is better.
The only simpler antenna might be a 68-70 foot wire connected to a tuner of some sort (usually positioned right at the base of the antenna). But even this will likely require a counterpoise to keep RF out of the shack.
There are many other simple designs (Rybakoffs, etc, for POTA or similar situations). A web search will reveal hundreds.
Rudy Soverns, N6LF, has followed and expanded on Jerry Sevick’s (W2FMI, SK) extensive research into antenna ground systems (radials). His seven research documents on the subject of radials are listed below. ARRL has summarized his findings in a QST article and this is listed first.
QST Summary of N6LF’s “Ground Systems (radials)” articles
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #1
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #2
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #3
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #4
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #5
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #6
N6LF Ground Systems Paper #7
Interested in 630 meter antennas? N6LF has information for you.
The ARRL has a large selection of articles on vertical antennas. You must be an ARRL member to read these but most of the information should be in the ARRL Antenna Compendium books. Click here to view the selections.
Remember that when measuring the length of each leg of a wire antenna, measure from the center (“eye”) of the end insulator to the center (“eye”) of the central insulator where the lead-in is attached. The length of wire which is included to do the wrapping on both ends should be added when cutting the wire. It is not part of the electrical length of the wire but it is a part of the physical length needed to erect the antenna and attach the insulators.
Lloyd Butler, VK5BR’s website contains a lot of information about antenna tuners, antennas and just about anything else concerning HF radio – give it a look!
If you like Zip Cord, here is a page about Zip Cord Antennas and Transmission Lines.
For over ten years I used a multiband inverted Vee (a “doublet”) with 70 foot legs and the apex at about 55 feet in a tall tree. But in January 2024 a storm caused a malicious tree to fall into it which wrecked it.
In February 2024 I replaced it with a “Delta Loop” antenna made of #14 insulated stranded “house wire”, formed into a triangle with the apex at the top, at 50 feet. The total length of the triangle is 144 feet so it’s a full wavelength on 40 meters. The two inclining sides are 46 feet long and the base is 52 feet long so it is not quite equilateral in shape, and the bottom horizontal wire is only about 12 feet above ground, due to some tree and lot limitations. It is not precisely vertical and leans slightly “backwards,” this being the best I could do.
It is fed with 450 ohm twinlead (which is actually closer to 400 ohms) at the lower left intersection of the left and bottom sections. This corner feed is said to produce a lower takeoff angle which is good for DX but I have no way to measure this and since it is fed with twinlead, the actual feedpoint impedance is not of much concern.
Here’s a drawing of it.
W5SDC has an analysis of this type of antenna which will have both vertical and horizontal components to its radiation pattern. An extensive analysis of loop designs can be found here.
The antenna faces about 30 degrees so roughly into northern Europe from its “front” and about 210 degrees to the rear which favors western South America and perhaps Australia by the loooong path. Time will tell where the miscellaneous lobes fall.
After installing it, I fired up the Drake 2A and immediately heard Germany, Belgium, Canada and many USA stations so I know it works! I would not have heard these stations on 40 meters, in the middle of the afternoon, with the old Vee. 20 meters into Europe was populated also.
I notice that this “loop” is a quiet antenna which seems to ignore more manmade noise than the old Vee did.
I also have a 400 foot on-ground receiving-only loop that is a very quiet antenna and seems to “hear” very well compared to other antennas I’ve used. Some day, I’ll see how it transmits! NVIS?
I have some wire and ladder line left over and am thinking about installing a simple 20M Vee beam aimed at South America…we’ll see about that.
Once we have selected an antenna, how do we send our RF to it? This can be an extremely technical subject but we’ll try to boil it down to a few simple concepts in the articles below. We address mostly “twinlead” (a.k.a. “ladder line”) feedlines since we are largely discussing wire antennas.
“My Feedline Tunes my Antenna” (no, it doesn’t)
Antenna and Feedline Lengths
Does Feedline Length Matter? It certainly can.
SWR Meters Make You Stupid A lighthearted and informative article by KL7AJ
1:1 Balun by Dr. Jerry Sevick (W2FMI, SK)
“Twinlead” is called a balanced line because it consists of two parallel conductors held apart by a continuous insulator, resembling two wires “leading” together to the antenna. Coax is an unbalanced line because it contains a single conductor (the braid is an RF shield). A little understood aspect of twinlead is that the RF does not actually travel down the two wires! Instead, about 90% of it travels down the space between the two wires. Who knew?
When feeding a wire antenna with twinlead, most of us will simply comply with the “feedline lengths to avoid” described in the Antenna and Feedline Lengths article (above) and connect the twinlead to a 1:1 current balun (balanced to unbalanced line) at the tuner, and use the tuner to create a low SWR that keeps the transmitter happy.
If the SWR is too high, most modern transceivers will “fold back” (reduce) the power to protect the output transistors from being destroyed. Older, tube-type equipment is much more forgiving of high SWR’s. I have seen an old tube-based 10KW Navy navigation transmitter that was happy working into a 10:1 SWR antenna system.
If the SWR cannot be resolved down to an acceptable level on a particular band, with the balun and tuner, try adding about 1/8 wavelength of additional twinlead to the length of the twinlead. The 1/8 length would be calculated on the band where the SWR is the problem and you might have to “cut and try” to achieve the desired result.
Remember that most modern transceivers will tolerate up to a 2:1 SWR, so don’t obsess over achieving a perfect 1:1 SWR. If you have gotten it down to 1.3:1 or something like that, your transmitter will be happy.
Remember also that once a satisfactory but imperfect SWR is achieved, all the RF will still be radiated. The part that bounces back from the mismatched antenna hits the balun/tuner and goes back up the transmission line and is radiated. Didn’t know that? Read the “SWR Makes You Stupid” article above.
The sequence of device connections would be: Xmtr -> SWR Meter -> Tuner -> 1:1 Balun -> twinlead -> Antenna. The tuner would be adjusted to obtain a low SWR reading with no heating of the Tuner components. Heat means the Tuner is acting as a resistor and is absorbing the RF rather than passing it on to the balun. This is not good.
Jerry Sevick, PhD (W2FMI, SK) was an expert on baluns and ununs as well as short antennas. The linked article above discusses them in some depth and photo G shows how to make your own 1:1 current Balun. It’s easy. This Sevick .png photo provides another view. Remember to use a “current” (a.k.a. “Guanella”) balun, not a voltage balun. These are two different things and work differently.
If you want to know more about baluns, go to this page.
Note: If using a commercial tuner that has a 4:1 balun built into it rather than the 1:1 referenced above, and if the system works satisfactorily, just leave the 4:1 balun in the system. Every installation is a bit different, and if it works, it’s OK!
The RF stage of many older receivers was designed to accept a 300, 400 or 600 ohm (varies by receiver) antenna input. If fed by a 50 ohm connection, a significant loss of sensitivity may occur. A quick fix is to obtain an old-fashioned 300-to-75 ohm TV antenna adapter (a matching transformer) and connect the 50 ohm input to the 75 ohm side of the transformer, and the 300 ohm side to the receiver. This can really “perk up” the sensitivity of an older set.
A Field Strength Meter can be used to demonstrate that the xmtr/antenna system is truly radiating and can be helpful when adjusting a tuner. The simple circuit at this link is easy to build. A 200 ua meter will also work although the 50 ua meter shown is more sensitive. I’ve used this circuit for many years, with a 200 ua meter and it performs well, even easily detecting the RF from my little 14 watt 6L6 transmitter.
A Dummy Load is also useful and easy to build. Ebay sells 50 ohm, 250 watt microwave oven dummy loads for less than $10. These work fine at HF and UHF. Buy one and mount it on a heat sink, being sure to apply a thin coat of heat-transfer silicon to its backside. Enclose it in a metal box so the RF doesn’t leak out and radiate. Your 100 watt transceiver will be quite happy with it.
SWR Meters are commonly a purchased item, but you can build your own. Here is a simple construction article. Remember, you are trying to achieve the lowest SWR your system can provide, and it does not have to be a 1:1 ratio, so long as it is below 2:1 (for a transistorized xmtr). If you build one, you can test it against the Dummy Load mentioned above and that meter reading should be about a 1:1 ratio (your target).
Read the article titled “SWR Meters Make You Stupid” (the link is above) carefully so you can understand SWR meters, transmission lines, forward power and reflected power. It’s a great read!
I will add more to this page as time passes…feel free to contact me with your ideas: [email protected]