Simple Ham Radio Antennas: Antenna Basics, part II. Post #292
Source: Field, Van (W2OQI). "HF Antennas 101." " QST ", September 2004. Comment: Russ Roberts (KH6JRM). Summary: This article is a follow-up to my last post, where I quoted James R. Duffey (KK6MC/5) from his article entitled "Antennas--Some Rules of Thumb for Beginners." These two articles will give new licensees as well as us "old timers" a gentle reminder of some basic truths concerning antenna design and theory. Thanks to Dean Manley (KH6B) for running off a copy of this helpful article. Like the previous essay from James R. Duffy, I will place this in my antenna reference library. Article excerpts: Here are 10 tips and truisms that every ham should know: 1. An antenna does not have to be resonant to work. The only reason to make an antenna resonant is to eliminate the need for a impedance-matching device such as an "antenna tuner." Actually, a non-resonant wire dipole antenna fed with open-wire line and an ante