Let’s Think About Antennas…
By Darryl Wood K8IY
It’s almost Spring when a young mans fancy turns to thoughts of…..antennas!
With a crop of new hams on board and others moving on up in the world from Technician Class to General Class, there are going to be lot’s of folks looking to put up some kind of antenna for the HF bands.
I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject. I have a vertical up that I don’t use very much, and a G5RV which I am really impressed by. Since I am a renter I feel very lucky that my landlord let’s me have the antennas that I do, but it does limit me somewhat. The vertical that I put up doesn’t call for ground radials, however like most verticals I think it would work better if it had some. In my situation ground radials are not an option.
Pricing of antennas will also have an effect on the antenna system you have in place. Verticals will run from $150 on up to over $1000 for the big SteppIR vertical with all the bells and whistles. Wire antennas generally will sell for around $100 plus or minus. Towers and beam antennas will cost as much as you want to spend, in the little research I’ve done, I think $1000 would be the bare minimum starting point.
Antennas are great homebrew projects too! A basic dipole is two pieces of wire, a center insulator and two end insulators. Ok, maybe it’s not that easy but you get the idea.
This website has lots of cool antenna projects…
http://www.ac6v.com/antprojects.htm
This site also has some antennas of interest…
http://members.fortunecity.com/xe1bef/hf-antennas.htm
If you are just getting into building wire antennas a small tool kit will come in handy. Here are some tools you will want to get before you begin. Pliers, needle- nose and regular. Locking pliers, which can also double as a clamp. A soldering iron or gun. A good set of screwdrivers. And a wire stripping tool. Most of these items are available in kit form from various manufacturers, which can be a money saver.
As with most things in ham radio, if you are ready to start on an antenna project, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Nobody knows everything and two brains are better than one. The more seasoned hams amongst have probably already built the very same antenna you want to build, and they can guide you through the tricky parts of it.
Now for some fun stuff. Let’s look at a “money is no object” antenna farm…
OH8X Radio Arcala
Look under the link for station then towers and antennas. This station is what rich Finnish hams do with their money! Thanks to Al Bailey K8SIX and Brad Nowak N8SNM for telling me about this site.
That’s my column for this time.
73 de K8IY
Darryl