"H" Mil. antenna

[Medic115]

I have in my parts bin a Mil. "H" ground antenna, got this right after Desert Storm 1 and was brand new. I have played with this with a CB a few years ago but could not get it far away enough from the truck (did not have enough coax) but still made some long distance contacts with folks running high power from 100 miles or so. I was not running power.
Any thoughts on this antenna for possible field day and possible emergency ops. use.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...YKD-pRi53AXe3794P747_i79wzqHpwTUTViEGyUPdNPzw

The are called eyering antenna's.

 

[mancow]

That's neat. Is there a part number on it?

 

[Medic115]

Part number

302a I think I have to dig it out to be sure.
But I do remember it was very broad ranged. I need to look as somewhere I have the training manual for it also.

 

[prcguy]

I was just using mine a few weeks ago in the California desert and made contacts all across the country. Depending on your soil conditions you can simply lay it on the ground but it comes with a bunch of stakes that holds the wires about 18" off the ground, which works a little better.

You can use half the antenna which looks like a 300ft long dipole on the ground and its supposed to launch signals at both a high angle for NVIS comms and it claims to also launch a vertically polarized wave off the ends. Using the complete antenna resembling a giant "H" is supposed to be a little more efficient and more directional off the ends.

I had an antenna similar to a G5RV set up around 25ft at the apex and the ends were about 6ft off the ground at the same location as the Eyring. The G5RV was a good S unit stronger on all bands 80m and up, both local and DX. Tuning around on 160m I found the Eyring works a whole lot better there than the G5RV simply because the G5RV is just too short to be effective on that band and the Eyring is a little larger than a full size half wave dipole on 160. I looked up the patents and the balun is simply a 4:1 and the H shaped version has a broad band power divider to feed the two sets of dipoles.

Bottom line is the Eyring antennas do work but there not very efficient. They are easy to setup requiring no masts, guy wires, etc. They are very stealthy and good if you need an HF antenna at an airport since you can land a helicopter right on top of it without crashing into masts and wires.

These came out in the mid 80's if my memory is working and the US military bought a bunch but they never really caught on. Israel also bought some and a guy there is selling them new surplus in the $100 range.
prcguy

I have in my parts bin a Mil. "H" ground antenna, got this right after Desert Storm 1 and was brand new. I have played with this with a CB a few years ago but could not get it far away enough from the truck (did not have enough coax) but still made some long distance contacts with folks running high power from 100 miles or so. I was not running power.
Any thoughts on this antenna for possible field day and possible emergency ops. use.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...YKD-pRi53AXe3794P747_i79wzqHpwTUTViEGyUPdNPzw

The are called eyering antenna's.

 

[Medic115]

Stakes?

Mine did not have stakes and was still in the plastic, it did show on the flap using improvised stakes if available, but if not just laying it on the ground. In the manual it did say using a sand dune to direct the signal.

 

[mancow]

Is there a "dead zone" when using NVIS? I have a friend about 40 miles away and we would like to setup something that's at least partially reliable. Would a one of these or a low dipole be worth the effort or would be just be too close?

 

[n9mxq]

That's cool.. Looks like an updated version of my GRA-4

 

[prcguy]

Any low dipole should do and for multiband use its best to get it about 1/4 wavelength high at the highest band for NVIS which is usually 40m. Place it lower and it will tend to reject DX signals more at the cost of lower efficiency.

I run a 94ft horizontal dipole (ZS6BKW) at about 30ft and it completely saturates everything from 0 to 500mi or so on 80m from early evening to late morning and on 40m from mid morning to late afternoon. It also works fine for DX.

At my work I once ran a vertical in the center of a 125ft X 225ft bonded steel roof and it was very interesting to see it work local stuff out to maybe 75mi and it was good for DX but there seemed to be a dead zone from about 100mi to 500mi where a horizontal dipole really fills in. I later replaced the vertical with a 185ft T2FD which worked ok, then a G5RV which was much better then a ZS6BKW which was a little better.
prcguy

Is there a "dead zone" when using NVIS? I have a friend about 40 miles away and we would like to setup something that's at least partially reliable. Would a one of these or a low dipole be worth the effort or would be just be too close?