[Elecraft] RF in the Trees

[Fred Jensen]

On 6/26/2014 1:38 PM, Brian Hunt wrote:

> I've been using an end fed half wave vertical for several years with my
> K1 for portable ops.

EFHW's are very popular with the Summits On The Air crowd, and there are 
several varieties of transformers that will get the impedance down to 
what the ATU in a QRP rig can handle.  Some have added links for band 
change, KT5X has a trapped EFHW.
>
> The other thing I have encountered with verticals vs horizontal antennas
> in an urban environment is that verticals are inherently noisier.

True ... not always, but as a rule of thumb from many years ago, a 
vertical will likely be noisier.  I have a GAP Titan up on the roof that 
I use for the top two WARC bands mostly.  My other two wires will 
radiate but because the antennas are large compared to the wavelength, 
they tend to squirt my RF in all sorts of useless directions.  There are 
times, however, that the vertical is as quiet as the tribander on 20m.

I'm always amazed at how well my magnetic loop works when in the field.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org