What's Your Favorite Homebrew Antenna Recipe?

[JohnFreeman]

As long as you only use it for Rxing and not Txing, I have found it worthwhile to keep a roll of 24AWG wire

Nothing wrong with it for TX either as long as you can support it mechanically. I did a Worked All States in 1 yr with thin magnet wire stuck to the ceiling of a cinder block and slab studio apartment on 15/20 M. Certainly not ideal but with time on the air, good band conditions and CW it worked.

I was a college student at the time and I used what I had at hand, but yep, it's easy to do better than what I did with better materials that are not so mechanically fragile (and lossy at RF)

Johnny; Congrats on the license and getting on the air. You picked the VERY BEST time in the 11 year cycle to get on 10M. Antennas are really practical and fun things to experiment with. There's nothing like using what you have built to get a real feeling of achievement. You can add a passive wire reflector element and aim the resulting array about 20 degrees East of North and pick up about 4db of gain in that direction !

The 7300 is a great rig. The amount of radio one can purchase these days for relatively short money is really amazing. I've not bought a contemporary rig (other than a few dozen vintage HF radios) since my TenTec Omni VI+ 20 plus years ago, and I'm about to take the plunge and get a FTDX101D. I operated a friends FTDX 10 and it has a really great receiver.

Have you set up Logbook of the World (LOTW) yet? It's handy since you're working dx now.

No, you're not wasting your time without an antenna analyzer (though they're handy!). Hams did without for decades. As far as what to try next, you could do a fan dipole, and just attach other dipoles to the feedpoint of the antenna you have built already, cut the the appropriate length with the far ends separated by a foot or so. This starts to get to be a mechanical challenge (as all antenna projects do) but a trip to the pvc pipe section of Lowes will get you set up with suitable insulating materials. A calculator and a SWR bridge will serve.

JW: The nano VNA is really useful (even though I'm really slow using it). I built a notch filter to null out the AM BCB on my Kiwi SDR since I have a station about 1 mile from me, and the ability of the Nano to instantly evaluate the filter performance was really handy. There's still some bleed though but not nearly like it was before. The ability to instantly measure the design was great (about resulted in 50-60dB of attenuation in the notch)

 

[Johnny]

Have you set up Logbook of the World (LOTW) yet? It's handy since you're working dx now.

No, I haven't but I've book marked it now to have a look at, thanks.
I'm logging on QRZ, so far my massive contacts list has logged on QRZ as well so both of mine are confirmed before we finished the quick conversation.
I need to work on picking out my contacts call signs, I'm just not that good at it yet for some reason. They are saying my name to confirm so they've already logged and I'm still trying to comprehend their call. It's not a phonetics comprehension thing, maybe a hearing problem? IDK, more practice and maybe a headset.

 

[JW1987]

Once you set up lotw you can transfer the qrz data over depending on if you pay for qrz or not. My system is setup so I log in my logging software and it automatically uploads to lotw and qrz. The more time you spend on the radio the easier picking out calls and stuff is. It just takes time to develop an ear for it.

 

[JohnFreeman]

^^ Exactly. It's learning another language and you'll get caught up quickly. You'll also get good at operating your radio so that you tailor the audio to best suit your ear as well as filtering out background noise (to the extent you can. There's always background noise!).

I'd migrate off of QRZ as a logging program if it was me. You might look at one one the many free, or minimal cost logs (I have used Logger32 since it was Zakanaka/Logger 16, 20 some years ago) and enjoy using it. The important thing is to make QSO's and get the feel for things. And be able to export backup copies of the log (ADIF format) for safekeeping.

LOTW is not really a logging program but is really handy at storing your QSO's in a safe place, and for tracking progress towards Worked All States, or DXCC or the like. It is pretty simple to set up except for mailing off for the TQSL validation (free) to the ARRL....which is easy but takes a week or so to turn around.

Now.....for CW....

 

[JW1987]

I use n3fjp logging software, we actually worked him on field day last year. Logged him on his own software.

 

[Johnny]

IC-7300 SWR question. Easy to find answers when SWR is high. What happens or what does it mean when SWR drops off on the bottom of the scale?

 

[JW1987]

That is the bottom of the swr curve. It should start to go back up the higher you go in frequency.

 

[JW1987]

You can really see it on the nano vna because you can widen the graph a lot more.

 

[Johnny]

That is the bottom of the swr curve. It should start to go back up the higher you go in frequency.

LOL, I'm a dummy. I just didn't tune far enough, the antenna has SWR below 1 for way, way more of the band than I expected. I honestly was thinking it just dropped off and didn't come back. I need to play around with the scaling on it, along with everything else on this radio, I haven't scratched the surface yet. Thanks, 🥸

You can really see it on the nano vna because you can widen the graph a lot more.

Well, I've got mine sitting right here, suppose I should bet the ball rolling with it.

 

[Hashknife]

I'm not a HAM but I have always enjoyed SWL since the early 80's.
I'm enjoying reading this thread. I'm trying to learn more about this stuff.

Gonna dig out my ole Kenwood R5000 receiver and hook it up to an antenna I found a few years ago at an estate sale.
I paid $20.00 for it. It is brand new in the bag.

Any info or input on the performance and quality of this antenna??

 

[JohnFreeman]

The bottom of the scale is 1:1 not 0.

Remember that SWR is a ratio, not a simple value. A ratio can never be zero.

In a practical sense, it means your antenna is perfect. IMHO anything less than 2:1 is not worth worrying about at exciter level power levels.

Don't expect that broadband behavior on 75 and 80M though

 

[JW1987]

Good pointing out the ratio thing John. I was thinking of mentioning that after the fact. 1:1 is as good as it gets. I also don’t worry too much about anything under 2:1. My icoms fold back power much over 1.5:1 though.

Most of the time the higher frequency antennas have more bandwidth, the lower you go the tighter it gets.

No idea on that swl antenna but give it a shot. Lots going on, on the airwaves.

 

[JohnFreeman]

Good pointing out the ratio thing John. I was thinking of mentioning that after the fact. 1:1 is as good as it gets. I also don’t worry too much about anything under 2:1. My icoms fold back power much over 1.5:1 though.

Most of the time the higher frequency antennas have more bandwidth, the lower you go the tighter it gets.

No idea on that swl antenna but give it a shot. Lots going on, on the airwaves.

Absolutely right. 1:1 is when you put the side cutters back into the toolbox and turn off the soldering iron.

 

[Johnny]

I assembled and put up an end fed OCF antenna with 55' of wire, with the feed point at 35' and the end at about 15' high with an E-W orientation. Without any cutting, it is well below 1.5:1 across the board from 80m to 10m using the IC-7300's tuner, better lucky than good.

 

[JW1987]

I had a 9:1 unun with 43’ of wire and a 17’ counterpoise put up on a 45° angle with the unun at ground level. I swapped the wire to my 84’ piece and ran it up the same way except the extra 41’ are horizontal. ( _/ ) turn that shape 180° and you get an idea. Still need to play with it more.