Inverted Vee Linked Dipole vs. Endfed Antenna (Part 1)

[G8CPZ]

Phew! This question has come a lot [on this reflector and elsewhere]. I have both but more often take a EFHW for convenience despite slightly less performance. I’ve written in more detail on EFHW vs linked dipoles here …

Activation Shining Tor G/SP-004 with a Hamstick

This is shaping up to be an interesting thread. Some activators want ultimate Dx, some want to qualify the summit before freezing up. So there’s no one ‘ideal’ antenna solution. This could get like the old myth about the Sixties where you had to be either a Beatles fan or a fan of the Rolling Stones but not both [I was both]. I’ve used linked dipoles [usually in inverted V config] and EFHWs [horizontal or sloper] happily for years but very recently I have also become a fan of my new [Cha MPAS …

Packable 20m or 40m antenna

Hi Ariel, (At my age) I appreciate the benefits of quick deployment for winter activations. I sometimes find my iambic finger and thumb are cold before I even start making contacts. I have the LNR EFT-40/20/10 (12.5m long), LNR EFT-MTR-40/30/20 (19.8m long) and a SOTAbeams 40-30-10 linked dipole with 60m extension added. I use the linked dipole with a 9m pole and - when activating with my smaller backpack – one of the EFHWs with a 4m pole, so my experience isn’t strictly an A vs B comparison. …

End Fed antenna configuration

I have linked dipoles [60/40/30/20 and 20/10/6] and EFHWs [40/30/20 and 40/20/10]. For everyday [i.e. non big event] HF activations, if I’m not using my new Chameleon MPAS Lite vertical, I usually take an EFHW. I do not favour the situation where the wire antenna itself is acting as 1 or 2 of the pole guying ‘cords’. Despite having more benign weather than many parts of the world, the regions I operate mostly from [in north-west England and SW Scotland] often have strong and blustery winds espe…

Antenna Cable for EFHW Antenne / EFHW Antenne Vertical

I use a 10m length of RG174 coax as the feeder for my 60/40/30/20 linked dipole and 40/30/20 EFHW. The attenuation is spec’d at <1dB at 10MHz (30m band). I run a maximum of 10W (CW). Ten metres is long enough for me to sit in a sheltered spot away from the wind whilst the antenna is out in the open. The RG174 coax on a plastic winder weighs 187g and occupies little space in the rucksack.

Just to complicate the story nowadays I mainly take my Chameleon MPAS Lite vertical which performs well on 10MHz-50MHz compared to my EFHWs or linked dipoles [and in A vs B tests, sometimes better - vertical vs horizontal polarization better for a particular radio path?] and has a smaller footprint (good for busy summits) and is quicker to erect and pack away (good for winter weather).

Regarding comparison of weight:

There’s not much difference in rucksack volume between EFHW and linked dipole assuming same length of coax feeder same fibreglass pole (though I often use shorter pole with the EFHW). The vertical takes more rucksack space.

73 Andy