EFHW tribal knowledge sought.

Have a watch of K6ARK’s recent video on his “smallest possible all-mode” set up. From what I can tell, he has one of his matching units attached to a wire cut for 80m, with marks on it for different wavelengths, and he just unwinds it to the length he needs for a band. Regardless of whether you take this approach, Adam’s kit instructions are really good for building an endfed.

I have been using Aliexpress fishing poles, but if you can get the Decathlon one, you might be better off.

Have fun!

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I was mentioned somewhere in this thread, I think. Too much to read, but here’s my tuppence-worth.

A 25cm section of poly waste pipe. Jam it in a cairn or build some rocks around it, or even push it in sand, snow or soft ground. Pop the pole inside. Voila! No guys needed.

Alternatively, a single long guy, going quite high up your pole. Put it on the side the wind is coming from. Arrange the EFHW in a shallow V away from the guy. Voila #2.

For QRP, don’t worry about coax length, height of feed, or even using coax at all. Don’t worry about whether it’s inverted V, sloper, inverted L sloper or chucked up a tree. It will work and should match ok.

Ok, not many trees in some parts of the Hebrides, however plenty of wind. :grinning:

Have fun!

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If you don’t have an antenna analyzer to tune your homemade 40m EFHW and would like to use one, once you’ve made it, I would be happy to meet you on Whernside summit with my AA-35 for tuning and testing at a mutually-convenient date before you go.

Thank you.

I have a genuine nanoVNA which I use for antenna analysis.

I’ve finished swapping the band parts on my Radio Kits Explorer this evening. The reworking went without issue, you can’t even see where I’ve touched.

I’ll apply power tomorrow, I wanted to read the manual to work out how to reset the firmware or whether I need to reset it at all.

73, Colin

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Hi Colin,
Many people have given great advice. Some additional points would be.

It is much quicker to setup an EFHW if you do not have a fixed attachment for the pole at the middle point of the wire. Using a loop that can slide along the antenna wire allows flexibility is where the pole sits in relation to your operating position.

I generally setup the inverted v with a slight angle and used the antenna to guy the pole against the wind, with the pole stuck in-between rocks, a stake or tube in the ground, or just leaning against the wire. I’ve experienced surprisingly few collapses since I have started using this method, even with the sliding loop. I still carry guys but don’t tend to use them.

The full sized EFHW is broadband and very tolerant to variations in height, ground conditions and setup.

Have a great trip.

73, Kevin

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I have been experimenting with a loading coil to produce a 2-band vertical for non-harmonically related bands. I have found that a 21uH homebrew coil gives me a variety of dual-bands from 20 and above. So far, only 10 and 12 is an issue, but a coil with less inductance would work here too.

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That’s my policy as well Andy. As I sometimes (used to be often) have a 2m beam to support, I use the SOTAbeams rotator guying fitting which I find excellent. I’ve had a 60/40/30m dipole and a 5 element 2m beam on the pole at the same time many times.

When I use my EFHW, I always deploy it as an inverted L fed via 49:1 unun 1 metre up the pole and with the outer end 1m above the ground if I can arrange it that way. On summits where I’m likely to be alone, I use a walking pole, but it really all depends on the ground. Where needs must, etc.

It sounds like you’ve got an excellent pass-out Colin. I’m not sure I will be around to work you as we’ve a couple of family events at the end of the month, so I hope everything works out well for you. I’ve used a bike for a couple of HEMA summits and very enjoyable it was… which reminds me, I must get a bike rack for the new vehicle. Something else to do!

73, Gerald

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