Simple Ham Radio Antennas

I was looking for a quick and easy HDTV antenna for my new home in the Orchidland Estates area of the Puna District when I came across this video from Ross Voorhees. Rather than spend $40-$60 for a commercial version, I decided to use Ross's idea and build my HDTV antenna. Although my xyl and I don't watch much television these days, we do enjoy a few PBS specials and the evening news. Ross's antenna design is cheap and easy to build. There are more sophisticated designs available, but, for now, Ross's antenna does the job. This is a great construction project. I found most of the components around the garage or in my "radio room." Most neighborhood hardware stores can supply you with what you need. Good luck and have fun! For the latest Amateur Radio news and events, please check out the news feeds in the blog sidebars. These feeds are updated daily. You can follow our blog community with a free email subscription or by tapping into the blog

The Yaesu FT-450D is a popular HF transceiver that has proven its success since its introduction in 2011. I've used this rig on ARRL Field Days and in portable operations with my ham friends. The rig is simple to use and performs well, even in high interference conditions. This would make an ideal introductory rig for a new licensee or a dependable transceiver for the more experienced ham. Nice rig. Aloha de Russ (KH6JRM).

I'm still in the process of restoring my "antenna farm" after the passing of Tropical Storm Iselle on 07-08 August 2014.  I lost a few trees on my Orchidland Estates property, most of which were supporting several HF wire antennas.  I salvaged most of the wire and the 450 ohm feedline from the storm.  While I cleaned up the mess, I erected a simple multiband vertical antenna using a tall Norfolk Pine Tree as an antenna support. Next on the list is the restoration of my approximately 134-ft/40.85 meters  center-fed horizontal dipole.  The antenna is fed with 450 ohm ladder line which goes into a W9INN 4:1 balun and then via a short length of RG-8X coax into a MFJ 941E Versa Tuner II.  This feed arrangement allows multiband coverage from 3.500 MHz through 29.000 MHz. Although the antenna requires two tall supports (trees or masts), construction of the antenna is simple and the dipole doesn't require a ground radial system. Using the general formula, 468/f(

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