New Wire Antenna Book available on this website.

Bob Glorioso, W1IS & Bob Rose, KC1DSQ

We start with a chapter that has most of what you need to know about dipoles to understand how they work followed by a build project aimed at new Technician licensees on building a simple to deploy 6-meter dipole. Another build, Chapter 3, follows what may be of interest to the new Technician as well as those interested in Emergency Services and remote operation, a dual band VHF/UHF J- Pole that can be rolled up and carried in a bag. A version of this antenna is being used on archeological and humanitarian expeditions deep in the Andes.

The next two chapters 4 & 5, expose more antenna theory to help the reader get the most out of the following chapters on the elements needed to build multi-band wire antennas including the basics of multi-band antenna design.

All antennas need a Balun somewhere and Chapter 6 defines the kinds of baluns, how they work and how to make 1:1 and 4:1 Baluns.

Chapter 7 describes the challenges in making multi-band single wire antennas and how to make the trade-offs needed for an effective multi-band antenna.

A key element in making a multi-band antenna work on all bands is the Capacitive Load and Chapter 8 tells you how to make one. Chapter 9 follows with a simple dual band 40 and 15-meter antenna that makes good use of a Capacitive Load.

Chapter 10 treats the design trade-offs faced in making Off-Center-Fed Multi-Band 160- meter. 80-meter and 40-meter OCFs.

Chapters 10, 11, & 12 apply the concepts in all the previous chapters to Off Center Fed Multi-Band Antennas, End Fed Multi-Band Antennas and unique Off-Center-Fed C-Pole antennas.

Chapter 13 takes usually big awkward beam antennas and boils them down to a configuration that can be carried by one person and installed from ropes hanging from trees. The first, a 40m beam uses a Driven Element – Director configuration to deliver good forward gain from this wood and wire beam. The second, two phased dipoles also made of wire and wood, deliver good forward gain and an outstanding front to back ratio for 20 through 6-meters. Starting with 20-meters we scaled the design for 17, 15, 12 and 10- meters. Scaling did not work for 6- meters, so a different design is presented for that band.

Chapter 14 provides an introduction to Vertical antenna theory coupled with practical wire verticals for 160m, 80m and 40m. These antennas have low take-off angles useful for working DX on the lower bands.

Chapter 15 is an introduction to the basics of Loop antennas for lower bands and a simple wood and wire loop design for 20m, 15m, 10m and 6m to fill in holes in coverage when using multi-band 160, 80, 40, and 20-meter antennas on harmonics that have nulls in signal strength in some directions.

The final, Chapter 16, is a collection of simple “Rules of Thumb” that boil down complex concepts to some simple definitions that may be both helpful and amusing.

151 pages, 250+ Diagrams and Photos to help you build you own.