[TowerTalk] Wire antenna?

[David Gilbert]

The EFHW-8010 gets rave reviews, but I'm fundamentally suspicious of any 
antenna that covers that wide a range without tuning.  There have to be 
losses somewhere to get that.

Those same reviews also claim similar results for installations 6 feet 
off the ground versus 60 feet.  That also doesn't make sense given the 
effect that ground typically has on the feedpoint of a horizontally 
polarized antenna without a lot of loss.

I couldn't find anyone who had done a real time A vs. B comparison 
against, for example, a center fed dipole at 40 feet on 20 meters. I'm 
not saying that the EFHW-8010 isn't a practical single antenna for a 
given set of constraints, but I'd bet a lot of money that you could do 
better with a collection of other properly chosen wire antennas if you 
have the space (presumably you do if you can put up a 130' long 
EFHW-8010) and some decent trees.

And if your ground conductivity isn't too bad, I'd even consider an 
Inverted-L or two with VOR-type counterpoises before I'd rely on 
something that physically shouldn't work without a lot of loss ... 
especially if the distance from the antenna to the shack is short enough 
that you could use a tuner for operation on multiple bands without a lot 
of feedline loss due to SWR.

My two cents worth ...

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 6/30/2019 9:34 AM, k7lxc--- via TowerTalk wrote:
> Howdy, TowerTalkians -
>
>      I'm interested in putting up a wire antenna that I can use on HF. The myantennas.com  EFHW-8010 looks interesting. This one claims No tuner required. I'd also consider an all-band ladder line fed dipole. Any recommendations and/or feedback appreciated.
>
>      I'll build my own if I knew what good wire (probably should be insulated as it'll be amongst lots of trees and other vegetation), center insulator and ladder line to use. TIA!
> Cheers,Steve     K7LXC