No. I’ve not noticed any obvious directionality but I’ve never looked. The alignment of the wire is always determined by the hill, footpaths, vertical drops etc so I just set it up however seems best and it always seems to work. For the DX S2S days I’ve taken part in I use a vertical so it’s omnidirectional.
73 Richard
The end of a HALF-wave has zero current, and current remains low for some distance. It being close to the ground is not noticeably lossy.
For your curiosity, here is how I have deployed an EFHW for a thousand activations: Wire is an inverted-L. I tape the wire to the fishing pole about five feet up and about three feet from the end of the wire. The wire then goes up to the tip-top, then out more or less horizontally, secured to a bush. The loose pole end plugs into a 64:1 impedance transformer which in turn is plugged directly into the radio. There is no coax, no feedline, nothing to uncoil, coil, carry, or be additional loss.
Deploying as a sloper from the top of the fishing pole toward ground has several disadvantages. The length of wire being supported by the pole is some fifteen feet longer than deploying as an inverted-L. The area of maximum radiation is in the middle, and that is much lower deployed this way. With an inverted-L and depending upon which band is being discussed, maximum current may be split between the highest part of the vertical and the highest part of the horizontal.
Best QRP DX with this antenna was another QRP station, 11,000 miles away, /MM in the Indian Ocean.
73, fred KT5X / WS0TA
I have run a sloper with the feed point at its closest, elevated a few centimeters from the ground. At its closest, it’s on my backpack on the floor. The best case was, I think, a summit shelter on Fan Brycheiniog (pictured).
I generally use EFHW for 40m up in an inverted V config as this can be easily deployed with a single guy rope. However, some summits I’ve been on don’t have a whole lot of room, so a 20m sloper EFHW is a good compromise, if not a little risky perhaps.
The key point I wanted to come in and make here is likely something everyone has had happen. My antenna fell down twice recently during WB activations, and both times I failed to notice, as I had my head in a small tent. I did notice the signal reports drastically drop; however, I carried on working stations, many of which were perfectly audible, with the wire simply laying on the ground.
So in terms of efficiency, there is a difference im sure, but when I can still work stations around Europe with the antenna laying on the deck, I’m not sure I’ll ever have the patience to measure or notice a difference in feed point height differences. I definitely am not a purist or a perfectionist; I’m a “get the job done” kind of guy. One day I’ll probably go and spend some time on a summit to try to not be such a speed demon. I’m sure the chasers probably hate me! just thought I’d chip in.
I use my 20m long endfeed as INV V configuration. I take the balun 1-2m above the ground and the end too. For working on 30/60m I put a additional 10m wire to the end of the antenna. I only use 5 watts in ssb/cw and worked 108 dxcc from my poratable activations in the last 5 years.
p.s. The losses due to poor ground are very low in the antenna due to its nature.
yesterday at OK/KA-013 Dylen
So, in summary. They work. DX when the bands are good. Use it how you wish. Inverted V, sloper, inverted L sloping, almost vertical up a big tree. Coax, no coax. Remember ground conditions vary from hill to hill too.
To throw something else in there, my latest EFHW uses a 64:1 with a better torroid and a 40cm shorter wire to compensate. I also try and use less lossy coax on 10m. Coax is essential in the Scottish winter. It allows me to hide and keep the abtenna in the open. So, more efficient coax and torroid.
Of course, none of us have done A/B tests, so there’s no science in this thread anyway. (Along comes @HB9EAJ Stephan 
.)
Yes indeedy! Once again [like every time an antenna question come up on this reflector] pretty much everyone gets decent - albeit not ideal - results (except when hit with a propagation problem) citing what they use from a wide range of available antenna types and physical configurations.
Which is why my choice for a particular activation - from my collection of inverted-V linked dipoles, inverted-L / sloper EFHWs, bottom-fed vertical antennas - is often based on target bands, summit topology (if I know it), weather, time of day but often a whim (I just fancy taking the one that’s gathering dust).
I’ve used inverted L and inverted V configurations. Have never determined which is the best. It really comes down to the summit layout and also the weather situation at the time. I like having the pole close to me so I can sort it quickly if there is a problem, so I tend to favour the inv-L and mount the 49:1 at about a metre up the pole.
One thing I’ve never got around to is finding out is which direction is best to have the counterpoise. I try to run it at about a metre above ground and usually away from the slope of the inv-L, but I know others prefer it beneath the end fed wire… better NVIS?
I dispensed with my counterpoise after one activation using it.
If you’re using a single counterpoise wire, I read that it should lay beneath and in the same line as the EFHW. But for an omnidirectional antenna like a vertical, it’s better to split the wire into 4 shorter lengths spread out like a cross from the the antenna base.
If you really mean a counterpoise (and not a radial) then laying the wire on the ground, heather, etc is fine (and a lot more convenient than raising it). Its part of the ground plane is to act as the ‘top plate’ of a capacitor, the ground being the ‘bottom plate’.
P.S. I never bother with CPs with my EFHWs [I always get good results without one]. If one is going to that trouble, IMO you might as well deploy an inverted-V [linked] dipole.
If it is a half-wave, should not need or derive benefit from a radial. On 20M the "radial is less than a foot long.
Probably essentially no difference in radiation between an inverted-L and an inverted-V. However, the inverted-V puts much more stress on the pole. With an inverted-L with the wire going away from the wind and the pole leaned toward the sloping wire, the pole can be very light and yet never break. - fred kt5x
Can’t guarantee it, my model of the inverted-L shows a slight null off the end of the horizontal wire, none in the opposite direction. - fred kt5x
Thanks for the flowers Fraser, but there are other hams who have done more scientific research in this area than I have (e.g. HB9BCB).
Just ignore unsupported statements. If you really want to know what’s going on, make a model with the setup you’re most comfortable with and the bands you’re most interested in. Then do some variations and see what changes.
Yes, compare the radiation pattern of a 2λ with a 1λ in an inverted-L (or more precisely inverted-7) configuration for the 10 m band in my 7-band EFHW document on page 30.
Yes, check the above document on page 30 for a 1λ EFHW on 20m with the same configuration. I can confirm that the model matches reality.
73 Stephan
thats ok. Thanks for the summit to summit on Friday. 
Sorry I missed you when you were in Scotland.
Likewise.
Rod
You’re very welcome Fraser! And thanks for the S2S, which wasn’t so easy.
I think you might have mistaken me for Stefan @HB9HCS. I saw his spot once, but couldn’t hear him at the time.
73 Stephan
Ah, sorry. Simon @GM4JXP told me over the radio that Stefan was on 40m somewhere in GM land. I assumed it was you.
Yeah, he’s not as wimpy as me, but at least there were no midges attacking 
For some reason I’m unable to locate the original article, but I seem to recall that the counterpoise being laid out in the opposite direction and above ground had something to do with making it multiband. It is basically a 40m EFHW, but I’ve been able to use it on 60m and 80m with the auto-ATU in my IC-703.
I really need to find the article and reassess, but it does perform okay. For SOTA I normally use a link inverted V dipole, my 60/40/30 one being my staple antenna.
Lately I have been using not a 20m end fed wire but a 10m end fed wire, in an inverted-L configuration. This gives me the 2 bands I’m interested in for SOTA CW, 40 and 20. My rigs do not have inbuilt antenna tunders.
On 40m, with a single 8m long counterpoise trailing on the ground, it resonates as a 1/4 wave ground plane, no matching required.
On 20m I switch in the usual matching transformer and feed it as an EFHW. Band switching is just the flick of a toggle switch on the little matching box.
Here’s a video that explains it with pictures. It concentrates on the use of a lightweight 6.3m Balinese flag pole (as a replacement for my heavy 10m DX-Wire pole) but more recently I often just take my DX-Wire pole to save a bit of messing about with multiple pieces.
Since I made this video the cycle has come good and I’ve used this antenna for reliable VK-NA-Eu DX on 20m QRP 5W CW.
It should work on higher bands but I haven’t tried it.
I haven’t tried using just the 6m pole and stringing it as an inverted vee but that’s an option that should work on 20 and might even be a workable compromise on 40.
Video here:
The Bent Dipoles pages are good reading for all who are interested, especially the Inverted V EFHW page.
