EFHW

[jazzboypro]

Hello,

I'm thinking to buy an EFHW from myantennas. The thing is it would not be possible to install the antenna in a straight line even with a slope. It would roughly look like a horizontal square loop with a missing side. The height of the antenna would vary at different point. Do you think it's worth it ?

Many thanks
73
De VA2FCS

 

[popnokick]

It might work... the fewer bends the better. Could you do something like a BBTD as shown in this thread? Either in the attic / crawlspace or moved to the outdoors? What made me think of this was you wrote "square loop" -
Roof Mount for BBTD Cable?

 

[jazzboypro]

It might work... the fewer bends the better. Could you do something like a BBTD as shown in this thread? Either in the attic / crawlspace or moved to the outdoors? What made me think of this was you wrote "square loop" -
Roof Mount for BBTD Cable?

I'm sorry, i totally forgot to mention that the antenna will be outdoor

 

[popnokick]

If you look at the diagram you'll see the wire is outdoors (but could be done indoors as well).

 

[jazzboypro]

Not exactly was i was planning. In my case the antenna would be above the backyard and not on the perimeter of the house

 

[AK9R]

It would roughly look like a horizontal square loop with a missing side.

My 75m dipole looks like that. The feedpoint is at the center of my lot. Each element goes out 45 feet and then turns 90 degrees for another 20 feet approximately. If you set up an EFHW as you propose, it would probably still work, but the results may not be the best.

 

[mmckenna]

Do you think it's worth it ?

It'll be 100% better than NO antenna.

 

[K6GBW]

It should work. I've put up EFHW's in some really weird patterns. The MyAntenna models are really good. I doubt you'd have any trouble.

 

[WRQS621]

Hello,

I'm thinking to buy an EFHW from myantennas. The thing is it would not be possible to install the antenna in a straight line even with a slope. It would roughly look like a horizontal square loop with a missing side. The height of the antenna would vary at different point. Do you think it's worth it ?

Many thanks
73
De VA2FCS

Worked every continent with one. Check my QRZ page for list. Propagation has been pretty bad for weeks. Late spring I was able to make 3 Australia contacts on 17m with 10 watts of power on a EFHW. SSB to Bulgaria w/ 40 watts. EHFW are solid antenna's that are easy to deploy. Dipoles and EFHW are my portable go to's everytime. Verticals contrary to popular belief arent as easy to deploy (and results vary with counterpoise conditions).

 

[littona]

My EFHW starts out at about 3 feet off the ground, goes up to the top of my 6ft fence, then cuts over to the top of my deck, about 12ft. About as horrible as it can be, but it still works rather well. If I could get some height on it and straighten it out, it would work better, but it still works pretty good with 100W. Like many others said, any antenna is better than no antenna. Myantennas brand looks pretty solid. Probably works better than my MFJ!

 

[jazzboypro]

I will probably buy the EFHW-4010-2K-Plus, the other ones a a bit too long at 133 feet. I took some measurements and 100 feet is the max i can do unless i go back and forth in a zigzag manner.

 

[popnokick]

Earlier this month our club received some donated equipment and we needed to check it all out. To do so we needed an antenna. We were in a warehouse location with no installed antennas. But the club has a MyAntennas EFHW-4010. We unraveled it and pulled it out of the building and dropped it onto the ground. My first thought was "No way is this going to work". But it did! All NVIS I'm certain, but we heard both the CHU and WWV time signal stations. Made a QSO on 2M. Didn't try an HF QSO... didn't want to stress the finals of any of the equipment under test. Am I saying to drop the EFHW onto the ground? No. Besides the sub-optimal operation it's a hazard to humans and animals. But it did (sorta) work better than I expected.

 

[mass-man]

If you dig into EFHW musings you’ll find a wide variety of layouts that work in that particular location! Across a fence, up into a tree, over the tree and back down to the far fence was one! A big factor is heigth…a straight line is not! Either go for the win initially and do your primo install or start slightly less ambitious and move it around if you don’t like it’s performance! Mine is in its 4th configuration in 2 years!!

 

[mmckenna]

I will probably buy the EFHW-4010-2K-Plus, the other ones a a bit too long at 133 feet. I took some measurements and 100 feet is the max i can do unless i go back and forth in a zigzag manner.

I have a home brewed end fed antenna in my backyard. Total length is probably in the 35 foot range. 12 feet off the ground at the start and about 20 feet off the ground at the far end. Less than ideal for the length….
I have it on a long run of RG-6, probably close to 75 feet.

I'm just using it for receiving and it is hooked up to an old Sangean shortwave radio in the garage. Mostly used for listening to AM broadcast stations and some shortwave. It works pretty well, I've been able to do some AM broadcast DX, works pretty well on shortwave, even pulled in WWV on 25MHz a few weeks back.
Nano VNA says it is resonate somewhere around 18MHz.

I'm happy with it. I could probably have added another 30 feet to it, but it works well enough for me. May not be an ideal antenna, but it does work.

 

[bharvey2]

Given your proposed mounting arrangement, have you considered a full wave loop? You don't mention dimensions but if you have the real estate, loops have the advantage of being less noisy that EFHW antennas.

 

[jazzboypro]

Given your proposed mounting arrangement, have you considered a full wave loop? You don't mention dimensions but if you have the real estate, loops have the advantage of being less noisy that EFHW antennas.

The loop would have very uneven length on each side but it could be a possibility eventually. For now i've decided to buy the EFHW-4010-2K-Plus. The other layout i came up with is an horizontal V . One leg would be about 40 long and the other leg 23 feet long. This layout would provide a bit more Hight for me.

 

[sdsheeks]

I've had a myantennas 40-10 EFHW up for a while now and love it. You'll want to be aware EFHW's produce a lot of RF that could cause issues in the house if it is close enough. Mine was turning my oven on and off. I had to move it further out and put an RF choke on it.

 

[jazzboypro]

I've had a myantennas 40-10 EFHW up for a while now and love it. You'll want to be aware EFHW's produce a lot of RF that could cause issues in the house if it is close enough. Mine was turning my oven on and off. I had to move it further out and put an RF choke on it.

Thanks for the info. Would something like this at the antenna solve this problem ?

CMC-154-3K 1-54MHz – MyAntennas.com

 

[popnokick]

jazzboypro - Do you have the antenna installed and operating? Are you getting lots of RF on the feed line and back into the shack / house? If the antenna is not yet up why not wait until you finish the install and do some testing before you get a common-mode filter / balun? You may not need it at all. We have several members with the MyAntennas 40-10 EFHW and the club owns one as well. Not only have we not had an "RF in the shack / common mode" problem, but I've polled the membership and none of them are reporting that problem. A lot depends on the installation, I assume. But has been a non-problem for us. BTW - should the problem crop up for you, the choke you show from MyAntennas should handle it just fine.

 

[jazzboypro]

jazzboypro - Do you have the antenna installed and operating? Are you getting lots of RF on the feed line and back into the shack / house? If the antenna is not yet up why not wait until you finish the install and do some testing before you get a common-mode filter / balun? You may not need it at all. We have several members with the MyAntennas 40-10 EFHW and the club owns one as well. Not only have we not had an "RF in the shack / common mode" problem, but I've polled the membership and none of them are reporting that problem. A lot depends on the installation, I assume. But has been a non-problem for us. BTW - should the problem crop up for you, the choke you show from MyAntennas should handle it just fine.

The antenna is not installed yet, I ordered it a few days ago along with the polyphaser. I understand that there is a possibility that I don’t have this issue once the antenna is in place. Is there a drawback of installing the choke anyway ? If not I’d rather install one and be done with it. Before I know it winter will set in and I don’t want to have to solve antenna problems during this time lol