Category: Antennas & Propagation
- Choosing a Balun: Current vs Voltage Types and 1:1, 4:1, 49:1 Ratios 2026-10-18 · Antennas & Propagation
The wrong balun distorts your pattern, puts RF on the feedline, and heats up in the shack. The short answer: use a current balun wherever you can.
- EFHW Antenna: One Wire, Five Bands, a Single Support Point 2026-10-18 · Antennas & Propagation
An end-fed half wave covers 40 through 10 meters from one anchor point. Here is how the 49:1 transformer works, how to tune it, and how to keep common-mode current out of the shack.
- Gray Line Propagation: Why the Half Hour Around Sunrise and Sunset Reaches So Far 2026-10-18 · Antennas & Propagation
Low bands are absorbed by day and noisy by night. The gray line is the brief window when the D layer fades but the F layer stays — here is how to use it.
- HF Antenna Basics: Choosing Between a Dipole, a Vertical, and a Yagi 2026-10-18 · Antennas & Propagation
Dipoles, verticals, and Yagis each behave differently on the HF bands. Here is how a licensed ham chooses between them based on space, noise, and operating goals.
- Vertical Antenna Radials: Why the Ground System Decodes Success or Failure 2026-10-18 · Antennas & Propagation
A quarter-wave vertical is only half an antenna; the other half lives in the ground. Here is how buried and elevated radials compare, and the three mistakes that waste the most power.