Sunday 8 October 2023. I decided to dust the cobwebs off my homebrew EFHW antenna for an activation of the 2nd most popular VK summit, Mt Stromlo VK1/AC-043, 782m ASL (2566 ft). This EFHW version covers the 40, 20, 15 and 10m bands, I am planning to add a link for 30m later this week. The radiation pattern on 10m is primarily along the axis of the wire while on 20 and 15m the radiation pattern is perpendicular to the axis of the wire. On 40m the inverted V EFHW behaves as an omnidirectional antenna, perfect for 500 km NVIS. The apex is around 6.75 metres above ground.
Since constructing the antenna in March 2021, I have replaced the transformer winding with 18 AWG or 1 mm enamelled copper wire. The impedance ration remains as 49:1.
For this activation my radio is a Yaesu FT-891 @ 10 watts output.
46 QSOs by band:
- 40m – 35
- 20m – 5
- 15m – 4
- 10m – 2
DX Countries: Japan and New Zealand
Highlights: Working Hiro JG0AWE on 15m and multiple summit to summit (S2S) contacts with VK activators in VK3, Peter VK3PF, Glenn VK3YY, Andrew VK3JBL, David VK3KR, Alan VK3XE, Nick VK3NIK, and in VK7 Phill VK7ID, all on 40m SSB.
Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life 
Hi Andrew.
Also worth considering adding the little frequency compensation coil 2m from the feedpoint.
This drops the resonant frequency on the higher bands to where you’re likely to be operating for example from 29 MHz to 28.5 MHz. Need 1.5 uH or 6 turns on a 25mm plastic former.
Cheers,
Gerard – VK2IO
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