Setting up a mast end fed antenna

[EA2BD]

@9A3BKF

how do i set up the mast so it does not fall over,obviously i need a 3 point anchorage for the mast(telescopic fishing rod) to keep it in place?

Hi Karlo,

I recorded a video to show exactly how do I setup my EFHW inverted Vee with a 3 point anchorage: 2 points are the antenna ends and 1 extra for the middle point with rope.

You could skip the beginning if don’t need the info about knots and advance till 7:07.

Knots for portable Ham radio (Nudos para una antena portable)

It’s easy with short or long EF antennas. Good luck!
73 Ignacio

[9A3BKF]

Yeah it was low,the ground was sloping up towards the end of the antenna after the coil where the 40m segment is

[G8CPZ]

@KX0R

On bare summits, the end of the wire is sometimes near ground, but there is little difference in performance …….

Reading this remark from George changes things for me. As I said (above) almost all of the summits I activate are bare rocks or treeless moorland. But if I can slope the wire from the top of the pole to ground via a ~2m cord (what I believe is called an inverted-7) or to a fence post without much loss of performance, this config becomes interesting for me.

@KX0R

Most of wire hangs a few feet out from the pole. I sit near the bottom

Having the antenna pole next to me is a bonus. I don’t use walking sticks and I frequently use a tarp in wintry weather. So, with an I-L/I-7 the pole can double as a tarp pole.

This afternoon I visited a local SOTA summit to try my ~5-year-old 40/30/20 EFHW on my usual 6m pole but as an inverted-L. I attached the far end about 2m high on a scrawny bush. With my KX2 10W CW I got mini pile-ups on each band [8 in 6 mins on 30m, 5 in 5 mins on 40m, 15 in 18 mins on 20m] with more chasers and with better than usual reports received (mainly 559-599) than I can remember. Now of course, this could be due to excellent propagation conditions today or to the antenna being more efficient now. I’ll be using it I-L or more likely I-7 again in the coming weeks to see if it’s better on average than the sloper.

I’ll also be trying my other (shorter) EFHW, a 40/20/10m, as inverted-7 on 10m CW instead of my usual sloper.

[EI9KY]

I’ve forgotten to bring a mast on a few activations and have had surprisingly good results with a 20m long endfed just supported by walking sticks, ie the whole antenna just 1m above ground. There is no need to get too hung up on squeezing the last metre of elevation from a mast ! Also, I don’t bother with a seperate counterpoise, the length of coax does the job. It made no real difference as far as I could determine.

[G8CPZ]

There’s a reflector thread somewhere where many others have had the same experience as you. While I enjoyed yesterday’s mini pile-ups with an efficient antenna, there are days (usual wet & cold ones like today) where I just want to qualify the activation as soon as possible and get walking and warm again.

I spent ~15 minutes erecting my EFHW on craggy ground covered in grass. One misplaced footing and one gets a twisted ankle so no rushing about. On days like today I could do with the KH1-AX1 that folks are getting excited about on another thread. I might invest in an internal battery for my KX2 and with my (seldom used) 30m and 15m monoband whips try out a “poor man’s” equivalent.

[DL6GCA]

@EI9KY

supported by walking sticks

of course it works:

Turning hiking sticks to the antenna mast without special parts

It’s probably not new to some people… but maybe it will help one Sometimes, especially on longer, steeper hikes, I don’t want to carry an antenna mast to the summit. Then I take my hiking poles and turn them into an antenna mast, which I stick into a bush or between stones. I put it together with the handle loops and fix it with the Velcro straps that I use to hold the antenna wires and coax cables together. If you tighten the Velcro straps properly, it is quite stable. It’s about 2.50 m high…

Trip to F/MC and Pamplona (and reports)

After crossing the border and turning south, the landscape changed completely. Even the drive along the N-121-A was a pleasure. As I am an early riser, I arrived in Pamplona too early to move into my holiday flat. The most sensible thing to do at this moment is to activate the local mountain EA2/NV-119. And the first contact was ? … EA2DT ! View of Pamplona from EA2/NV-119 [IMG_3562] Since the weather forecast had only announced 3 days of good weather, I took it sportily and changed my …

…but the radiation is different.

@EI9KY

the length of coax does the job

And you’re right… with many antennas, the coax cable’s shielding is very efficient as a counterweight. After feeding it into the antenna, I make a current balun at about 0.05 lambda of the lowest frequency. This is how I operate my endfed and the random wire on the 1:9 Unun.

73 Armin

[K7GUD]

Ignacio. Thanks for the video. Love the knots and how you use them on the mast.

[K7GUD]

Fred. Thanks for the tip on using end fed as inverted L. I used my fishing pole to get the wire over a branch with the transformer at the bottom near the ground. Then I attached the end of the wire to my mast and leaned it into some tree branches. I can’t believe I never tried this before. Works great.

Also, thanks to WU7H and KX0R for their inverted L recommendations. I’m a convert.

[EC7ZT]

Hi Karlo, I am now using this tiny endfeed antenna and it works very well on 20m. I carry a small 4m long Sotabeams fishing pole in my backpack, the gear is quite light.
73 Manu.

[9A3BKF]

Cheers for the replies,unfortunatley we had made a massive oopsie while cutting the wire,the transformer was tied to a wooden balcony which has a metal rail underneath it(which we forgot),so that when we set it up on the pole the SWR was way out of the ballpark what we measured when we cut the wire.
Now just waiting for better weather so we are going to set it up on a mast and then cut it to the correct length.

73