Amateur Radio

Big antenna arrays are not accepted in UK towns - so the set up at G3XVJ has been designed for low visual impact. The main HF antenna is a homebrew 2 element mini yagi on the chimney of the house. It uses end loading coils for 20/15/10 on elements only 5 metre long! In is not out of context with local TV and FM antennas - and I think it looks quite pretty!!

For the LF bands (80/40/30) I use an HF2V mounted behind a tree at the bottom of the garden. Again the visual impact is low as you can see (or maybe I should say as you cannot see!!).

That leaves 17/12 metres for which I use various antennas mounted in the loft of the house - and of course those cannot be seen at all!

With this set up and a maximum 100 watts on CW (and 400 watts when I occasionally use SSB!) I have achieved DXCC Honor Roll and 5 Band DXCC - and I have worked enough stations for CW Honor Roll and 30/17/12 DXCC as well. I feel this shows that whilst big arrays and QRO may be nice to have - they are not absolutely necessary to work the DX !!