K6GBW
Member
I've been running and fed antennas for some time with mediocre results. I later started using a Buschcomm SWC-100 antenna that uses resistors to make it have a low SWR on all bands. Very handy! But it's also dead and eats power so you don't get out too well. Based on some things that PRCGuy wrote I decided to make a ZS6BKW antenna that is a variation on the G5RV theme. I made mine using 93 feet of wire on top and a matching section of 36.5 feet of 300 ohm window line. This was followed with 24 feet of LMR400 to the tuner. Amazingly, this thing only need a touch of tuner (the rigs internal tuner works) on 40 meters. 20 meters needs nothing at all. It tunes all bands 80-10 with a simple external tuner. As for performance, well I can't tell any difference on 40-20 from a regular dipole. On 80 I'm sure its not getting out at well as a dipole but it does work well enough to be heard.
For a cheap and easy antenna that's short enough to use in just about anyone's yard I can't recommend this highly enough!
For a cheap and easy antenna that's short enough to use in just about anyone's yard I can't recommend this highly enough!