A Diary of Technology Pursuits
I have a habit of doing some "temporary" things that turn out to be not temporary. One example is putting an antenna feedline through a window. I have a 2nd story window in my garage where I wanted to pass some antenna feedlines. This window would never really have to be securely closed, so if... Continue Reading →
I wanted to get on the air for the CQ 160 contest this weekend but my Inverted "L" is down. I have a ZS6BKW that I have used on 80m before and wondered if I could do it on 160 meters. The two legs are around 45 feet each and the ladder line is about... Continue Reading →
One of the first tasks in my Beverage antenna project was to decide upon a method of supporting the wires. I planned on a bidirectional antenna, so a dual wire hanger is needed. Some key concerns are the desired height and the environment where the antennas will be installed. In my case, I want the... Continue Reading →
I have been playing around with the weak-signal propagation mode WSPR for about a year now. Most of my WSPR initial work was in receiving and reporting Spots from WSPR transmitters. Now I wanted to do some HF antenna testing but it was in a rough RF reception environment. So instead of receiving and reporting... Continue Reading →
11/8/2025 update - Found a very good Link from W4RNL (SK) discussing this broadbanding approach. He is my favorite source for practical antenna information. In his article, he gets into the details and performs some modeling of this approach to broadbanding dipole antennas. you can find his research here Many Hams use wire antennas, and... Continue Reading →
On the morning of August 4th 2020, a Tropical Storm passed through the Northern Neck area in Virginia. The storm sent an EF-2 tornado through our area in White Stone, starting in the Windmill Point area and traveling about 15.5 miles, passing by Kilmarnock. The tornado missed our house by about 1000 feet, but put... Continue Reading →
I have a need to get on 160m occasionally for a contest, but have limited space. I tried a dipole, but it was just too much trouble. I had to bend the ends all around to fit my small lot. I keep hearing that an Inverted L is a decent antenna, but have never been... Continue Reading →
I have been experimenting with some Receive-antennas for the Low HF bands (80 and 160 meters is "low-band" to me). I discovered these popular antennas from other Hams at the Contesting Club (Potomac Valley Radio Club) I belong to. Nearly all the serious Contesters in PVRC, and all of their Superstations, have Receive-only Antenna options... Continue Reading →
I wanted to do something to improve my Station performance on 160m, so I thought a Receive Antenna would be the way to go. Everyone tells me that you need a decent RX Antenna for 160m, because you can not expect much on the RX side, from a 160m dipole. The dipole is sure to... Continue Reading →
I have slowly been adding 160 meter Band capability to my Station, mainly in some recent contests. With sunspots so low, and the high HF Bands suffering badly as a result, this seems like a good time to do some work on the Low Bands. I have started trying some antennas and have been able... Continue Reading →
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