Starting from Scratch: Antenna Basics for Beginners - Three Simple Rules
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- čas přidán 4. 02. 2023
- I share my secret to success - three easy antenna rules that anyone can follow! These rules are simple to understand, simple to implement, and budget-friendly. By following these three rules, I've been able to achieve great things and I'm excited to share them with you. This presentation is packed with valuable tips and tricks that will help you reach your goals. Watch now and let me know your thoughts in the comments. 73, Callum.
Fun Fact: I asked AI to rewrite the description (below) and it wrote me the description (above) based on mine below:
Three rules I enjoy, Easy to Understand, Easy to Build and Easy on the Wallet. Using these three rules has allowed me to achieve great things. I hope you enjoy this presentation and please let me know what you think in the comments. Callum.
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I learn more from you than any ham on YT.
"Three simple rules", 44-minute video. D:
In all seriousness, great watch, well worth the runtime, and we need more long-form content on CZcams anyway! Keep up the great work! ✊
Er yeah.. I wasn't too sure about the 44 minutes.. One in 10 maybe..!
Great explanation on vertical and horizontal noise!
Excellent, thanks. Clear and interesting.
Hi hi Callum. Fantastic video. Love your straight forward way of explaining things and love your antenna rules. You have inspired me to finally start experimenting with antennas. THANKS!
thank you once again Callum for doing these videos, I real enjoy learning from you, your such a good inspiration to learn more.
My pleasure!
Awesome Callum!! Thanks
No worries!
Thanks Callum!!!
Yeah! Fun times.
This is probably your best video i have watched, very nice of you to spread your knowledge about antennas, you allways learn something new when we have mentors like you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much, for your Frank and normal speaking knowledge and sharing it with us, I have found it to be invaluable.
You are very welcome - and thank you for your comment :)
Great video as always dude your a natural I've learned so much from watching your videos please keep them coming, also love the music room behind you I've always wanted my own drum set sadly I can't get one as were in a semi detached house.
SOmeone thought it was a green screen!
Perfect! I live in potato growing country, so I have perfect ground for a vertical.
Great tutorial! very helpful!
Hey Thanks!!
killer Video man! one of the most useful video ever!! thanks a lot
Glad to be of assistance!
Great video. Thankyou
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. Extremely interestingly love the antenna toppics. Keep it going, we love your shows. Vy 73
More to come!
Exceptional
Fantastic ❤️
Thanks 🤗
Great video! thanks Calum.
Glad you liked it!
@@DXCommanderHQ We have lots of new students who will use this video for sure, Going back to basic is the best way to think about new Ideas. And you will attract newcomers ( who are green to this ) to your channel.
Stay safe and stay active
that was interesting for sure... 👍👍👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks again Cal, you’ve taught me why I have such a narrow usable swr range on the 80M portion of my efhw. The coil that shortens it (for 80M)! I might have to eliminate it and put an extra 20 meters of wire up. Might have to move my feed end back a bit to fit it all in my block. 73
Excellent
Thanks Cal. Very interesting. 73s
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks!
You bet!
Great info
Thanks for watching!
This guy is the bomb. !!!❤❤❤
Woo-Hoo!
Callum another great presentation from you. I look forward to when you play with the beverage antennas. 73, Mike/K1EG
Yes, I need those bits on order..
Cool video!
Glad you enjoyed it
Thankds sir Calum for this very informative video which has given me some ideas, specifically a small LoG RX antenna to combat local QRM from LED streetlights and neighbors' fairy lights. I'm still not licensed yet (awaiting my countries' communications authority to schedule an exam in my region) but I've built an experimental vertical traveling-wave antenna (it needs a good ATU to TX) out of 7.3 meters of twinlead appliance cord with 1.5 meters removed from one side at the top. a 4:1 transformer, and a few counterpoises.I've been able to RX very well and pick up stations on FT8 (on various bands) from all over the globe. It's a sort of Rybakov/OCF 43 foot vertical hybrid or something. You might have fun experimenting with this. 73 de Jay PK10.
Hey Jay! Firstly, good luck with the exam - and also you sound extremely technical already.. I'm sure you will do fine! :)
Hello Cullum from Dan Peoples in McArthur ohio. Dan and I are watching you now. Dan has his ham lisence blessingz
Kd8hhp from McArthur, Ohio Daniel Peoples
Woo-Hoo!
was about to cut some wire to make an antenna ... ill wait untill i watch this :)
Thanks Calum, us who do not have the magic black box antenna tuners or an antenna analyser your explanations are great, especially using metric measurements in relation to the bands. I think it all comes down to 10 +- meters for an antenna 1/4 wave 10 meters for each element, then you have the resonant frequencies which I believe are the other bands which the antenna will work on being multiples of 10?????. If using the 80 meter band then each element is twice the length used on the 40 meter band. 10 meter band the elements are 2.5 meters +-. I know that there is math calculations that give you the exact length, but the plus minus length estimate is for tuning...always easier to make the elements a little longer for trimming.
Yes.. it's all a little bit like octaves!
When I cut wire, I cut a little long.
I have a rule of thumb going between metric and standard. One meter is approximately 3.2 feet or slightly bigger than a yard.
I find that even as i have gained experience, a reminder of the basics can help.
I really like what you do. I also get a good laugh with some of the differences in the way the British and Americans say things.
Yes, very gradually (possibly never) I seem to be understanding the differences :)
@@DXCommanderHQ i figure if I can do quick conversions, it is good for what I do. I'm not working on anything that needs to have fine tolerances.
@@DXCommanderHQ as far as the slang, it's good for some laughs. Even between regions in the US, we have some funny differences.
I just went to harbor freight and got a tape measure with standard on one side and metric on the other. No need to convert. Cost 16 dollars I think.
A meter is 39 inches. G8PVI. IO91XI
Good Video Callum! You do antennas the fun way, skipping the middleman. You take a basic concept and make it work Hands On, rather than Over Engineering them, and still needing Hands On to dial them in anyway. Keep spreading the Good Word. More people need to realize antennas aren't as hard or critical to build as the purists want us to think. Building antennas is another Hands On way to enjoy Ham Radio, especially when you finally work New Zealand on an antenna you built!
73 mike N4ONL
EDIT ADD LINK: czcams.com/video/OJy-XjGYlGw/video.html
Thanks 👍
Great stuff, Callum! Thanks! Ben N4UTX
When I lived in the city... I had a nice tall 80 ft tree... I ran my coax to the tree and I attached three aerials one was cut for 160 another for $80 and another for 40 m
I had quite a few radials that were just stapled to the ground with lawn staples and I just use galvanized steel fence wire... I also connected to the fence of the property as well as the water line and my two car steel garage
The result wasn't antenna that worked all the way from 160 up to 6 m... For that matter it even presented a usable match it two meters
It was an extremely loud talker on 160 through 40
Although it wasn't very good at listening on 160 due to all the noise it would pick up
I still made quite a few contacts using this antenna... And I referred to it as a fan vertical
Obviously the 160 and 80 aerials were more of an inverted L
Nice though!
Hay i am new to your chañel and it s3ms ive some catching up to do.. that said . I love your video. Great information about antennas design and propagation. I do truly look forward to more.
I am not yet a ham . I am a 11meter baby. No haters. I also enjoy my gmrs radios . As i study for the ham test i am amazed at the multitude of available radios and antennas and how things have changed from the 70s to now . I have also found digital to be a bit perplexing, subject maybe for another day.
I woder tho do you have any videos on 11 meter antennas or would you consider doin a fucus on 11 meters and another on 2meter and 70cm i feel at 59 i am late in the game to be tryin to learn how to build antennas . I was in the army and raising 7 children i was always to busy for the radio hobby . And now i have the time , and retired now far less income . Rambling on now.
Anyway 73s great video.
I am 10 from the florida georgia line . In georgia.
Any radio can be good fun.. Enjoy!
Thanks for more great info and clear explanations. So, I got a 4:1 balun to set up a better LoG in my backyard for SW listening as I mentioned before, and I decided to utilise the full area of said garden, but this means two legs of the antenna are longer than the others (roughly 50ft wide and 30ft deep). Before, I had a far smaller (but less 'lop-sided') one just resting on the lawn to try out the concept after seeing your specific vid on LoGs. I can't help feeling the former was maybe more sensitive - and I initialy set it up without a balun, just having one 18-gauge speaker wire coming from the 2-terminal antenna adapter on the radio and back to its ground. I also tried it with two speaker wires (i.e before splitting the two halves). Is it inadvisable then to have a larger loop with unequal legs, and should I go back to something smaller but more symetrical? Also, even with the balun I can't help feeling the noise level is still quite high, although that could I assume, be proximity to the house and the presence of other noise sources close by in the neighbourhood. Excuse the novel. So much to learn and try to perfect before I even think about pursuing transmitting as well as receiving.😁
I'm not calculating the word "loop" with "legs".. In my book, a loop is continuous, all the way around.. However it's it's NEARLY a loop, then unequal legs is OK, I am sure..
@@DXCommanderHQ Ah, ok, understood. Book? I must check that out. Thanks!
And yes, "legs" was the wrong word to use in this case. Apologies. Update: I've been getting a lot of good traffic on 20M and 40M since I asked about this, so I guess something works :-) Thanks again good sir for indulging my silly questions.
😍
Even vy interesting video and clear explanation. Thanks Cal ! 73,Mauri Iz2mgn
Glad you liked it!
hi cal i have recently switched to hf vertical , what a difference done loads of a/b tests with dipoles and wspr in the main the vertical comes out on top
very interesting video!! what do you think about a rhombic antenna?
Yeah, I genuinely looked at that. I would ideally need 4 x 30 feet / 10m supports to string it all up - and a lot of room. It's probably off the table for many years for me but exceptional apparently.
A proper vertical is just a folded dipole that can’t decide which direction it wants to face. But why doesn’t it need to play by the same rules? Dipoles are hard to use an antenna tuner on, and each pole needs to be the same length. But a vertical doesn’t care how long the radials, neutral/negative, are. You can also tune a 6 meter tall whip to anything between 10 and 80 meters with a good antenna tuner. I keep looking into other antenna concepts, but I keep coming back to verticals for their simplicity and decent performance.
Well.. It sort-of does care how long it is - but only for "us" because the longer an antenna gets in comparison to the wavelength, the pattern changes quite a lot. Ideally, a tuned quarter wave with some radials works great with no tuner.. But hey, everything "works"..! LOL :)
Callum, you mentioned linear loading & coiling in this presentation. Well I was thinking about a different type of space constraint - I can basically squeeze in a hundred of metres or so of wire to one direction (or two, if it's bidirectional), but my backyard room doesn't allow other directions I'm particularly interested in. Like, I could point it at UK or US to one side or India/Middle East to the other from Poland but I'd rather get Japan & Korea out of that wire antenna. Can adding a bit of wire perpendicularly at the far end help? I imagine the pattern should skew towards the new far end, but how much? And will it work for a longwire as well as a beverage? Or am I risking spurious leaves off-the-sides? 73, Arnie
Now.. Interesting question.. You want to "skew" the pattern and honestly, I really don't know the answer.. Mine has about a 10 degree kink in it and to be honest, I am facing perhaps Mexico rather than say Seattle (I am too far south) so more experiments required in that department.
Callum, from S.E.Tennessee - your plain speaking is greatly appreciated. You have given me the encouragement to go out and experiment on my small holding. In the end, though, I really just want my signal to “get out there” as far and strong and clear as possible. Also interesting - the idea of a receive (only) antenna. Does that imply separate antennas for receive and transmit? Perhaps a silly query, if so, please excuse a newbie’s ignorance. Cheers - KQ4IXD
Yes.. You would need 2 x coax for both.. MFJ I think do a little remote switch so you can do one coax..
Explain why you would not use a 49:1 Unun on your DXC…. I was told it needs one…. Told Ihem Idon’t have one on mine. And it work’s awesome!
Woah! You don't need a transformer..! Whoever told you, is totally out of touch. You should get around 50 ohms with direct connect coax. If it was a half-wave end-fed, then yes, you will need 49:1 or 64:1 BUT these are essentially quarter waves or harmonics.
A really good vid Cal. A question if you don't mind.
How would a loop of wire vice radials work on your wonders of magic? Example, a back yard of 15m x 10m loop, on the ground.
I know, buy one and try it out and let you have the results... 🤣🤣 73, Gary
OK Gary.. We tried that.. Here's some video comparing vertical vs large loop vs a tiny loop: czcams.com/video/z5MhYu2LUrY/video.html
@@DXCommanderHQ many thanks sir.
G'day to you Calum, just a thought, what do you reckon I use the house gutter as an antenna? My problem is that they are colourbond I'd have to scratch the "paint" to secure the wire from the radio. Talking about QRN, I was tuning into shortwave the other day and our power went out, boy was I surprised NO QRN till the power went back on. I have solar panels and inverter, I think they are my enemy.. Great videos mate.. HooRoo from VK land.
Hello Steve.. I have heard the inverters can sometimes spew out crud..
@@DXCommanderHQyep I could believe the difference when the power went out, it was golden!.. 👍
Wow. Distilled knowledge - in a 'nutshell'. 🙂
Can I ask, what would you think the effect of adding a 'capacitance hat' to a vertical antenna in the hopes of increasing the DX range of the transmissions?
Since the 'cap hat' tends to electronically 'lengthen' the antenna, and thus making a 1/4 wave look more like a 1/2 wave antenna, and since 1/2 wave antennas have a lower angle of radiation, would the 'cap hat' tend to 'push down', or lower the angle, more than a plain 1/4 wave antenna, and therefore have more radiated power at 5 degrees?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
Ah-ha.. You say 1/2 wave has lower radiation.. So I don't think so. On moderate ground, they are neck-and-neck. Anyway,, if you make it too long, you would have to match it with a transformer so a cap hat means you would have to reduce the overall length..
@@DXCommanderHQ Thank you for the reply. Interesting - I had seen some graphs that (I thought) showed that the lobe pattern for a vertical 1/2 wave was lower than that of the 1/4 wave. I'll have to look at that again.
So, in my case, (Chameleon MPAS 2.0) 7 meter vertical antenna with a cap-hat half-way down, do you think that the cap-hat is lowering the take off angle, or is it just 'messing things up' as far as the radiation patterns are concerned.
Any advice / guesses would be much appreciated.
Cheers.
You are correct.. On the surface, the half-wave LOOKS that it must be better. Until you actually measure the radiation. Basically the quarter wave ALSO has some higher up gain but with 32 radials on moderate ground, they measure equal. Changing the ground to 16 radials (4 wavelengths) the half-wave is 1dB better at 5 degrees off the deck. You would never notice it.
3rd lol good day to all
What the RF imports could do on one VFO rigs is to have 2 ant ports and have an internal TR switch!
Nice!
When wrapping torroids(?) for baluns/ununs, can acetone be used instead scraping or sanding the coating off the ends of magnetic wire?
Erm.. Maybe! I don't know. If youhave some around, give it a go..
13:25 Dog says, "crazy human is talking to himself again"
HAHA Yes!!!
And, just to push my luck, what do you think would happen if you moved the 'cap hat' from the top of the antenna to half-way down the antenna - i.e. - from the top of a 1/4 wave vertical to half-way down the vertical?
Would this 'increase' or 'decrease' the lowering of the radiation angle, and therefore lessen or enhance the DX range?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.
I don't know..
FT902 had the preamp on by default and there is no need for a preamp on unless you are in the middle of nowhere and you are working on the higher bands.
73 from germany
Hello Germany!
so I get that different wire carries different impedances , question is what wire is recommended for the radiating wires of a dipole? is there a particular gauge which is best suited?
No.. For antenna WIRE, anything works..
Callum, could you do a video on a vertical dipole vs a vertical, for say 10m I an interested in the modeling. I actually put a vertical dipole on the side of my house for 10m. It was completely above the roof, and the performance was unbelievable It was cheap and cheerful and the feedpoint came out at 90 degrees on a piece of cane.I was getting contacted by Aruba every morning on low power.
Yes, I'll add that to the list. If will perform very well.
my 3 , luck , luck and foremost LUCK.
What would happen if you fold the dipole one or two more times, regarding that linear loading antenna, just a thought
OK so I have not made a video about this but I tried it (on a vertical actually and it did work) BUT losses were mounting up so I discarded the idea.
CAL….. I’m getting all excited……. Wa Waiting for my 11 m …, 🇦🇺🥃😎
But beam width of the beverage is 10-12 deg at best and I believe ON4UN said a shorter length beverage even narrower. Please correct me if I’m wrong I’m still reading the chapter 😊
Yes, I believe converting this to a Bev will decrease the angle of the main RX and also increase F/B.. To be honest, I quite like it how it is right now..
@@DXCommanderHQ thank you Cal, trying to interpret sum of the science in the books and make it work in my mind 😊
Probably a stupid question, at 38:11 When you are drawing the coil CCW {referencing the feed-point side of the coil} should the other side be the same CCW or CW, or it doesn't matter? 🤔
Good question - but it doesn't matter. Nice one..
I'm a big n00b. If I lay a 200m telephone wire right on the ground will it work decently well or is it really important to raise it off the ground?
Actually, it WILL work.. Look up "Beverage On Ground".
I only have an acre for my antenna, however there is 200 acres of state forestry up to my property. What would my chances be to run a long wire out into the forestry woods? I'm thinking a drone could deliver the wire along the top of the tree's for as far as my pocket can afford. I imagine even a large expensive drone could still only handle so much wire. any thoughts on how long i could go?
Yes.. Run thin fishing wire on a drone - afterwards pull a thin cord through then a bigger wire.
@@DXCommanderHQ Thanks Cal!
First! 😂
No.1 Space?
Mind impedance and voltage/current behaviors for optimal EMF performance. 'Resonance', proper match to transmitter suggests 50 ohms +/- impedance at the feedpoint. So a 7.2 MHz antenna is not 50 ohms @ 15 meters... it's a non-50-ohm harmonic relationship at 21.6 MHz - outside the amateur spectrum.
You've managed to combine the traits of a being fantastic mentor on the one hand with being an opinionated bully on the other hand. Quite the rough diamond, aren't you.
Hello sir, I have 5 element Long john 1 sided beam 17' boom that I cant figure out, I am trying to use it for 11 meters do you have any ideas or paperwork you could share with me? Thanks.
5 element.. Well the driven element will normally be the second biggest. The reflector the biggest and the other 3 will get smaller and smaller..
If twice as many radials work at half the length then why wont multiple beverage antenna lines at shorter lengths spaced 10 degrees apart work as well?
OK, so we need to look at apples and apples. Ground radials aren't resonant. Actually neither are Beverage antennas. There is good data about phasing Beverages together - but not with angles but by parallel spacing. You asked why won't it work, the 10 degrees business. I didn't cover angles of phased Beverages so I don't know.
Yep 3rd harmonics but there is a,signal drop
I did some back-to back testing on the 65% 40m and 20m single element this week with coil at 5.4m off the ground.. 20m seems good (maybe a tiny bit better than antenna #2) and tiny loss on 40m (maybe 2 dB). PS - I already wrote my reply and accidentally deleted it. I was going to say that folks seem to regurgitate "stuff" without qualified data.. I'm sure you are not one of these.
Your doggy agrees....
I would add making sure they are UK weatherproof, using stainless steel where possible. Also, the radial system needs to be weather resistant, when it degrades makes the SWR go higher.
Three rules,
1. Adjustable
2. Adjustable
3. Adjustable
Adjustable Spanner! :)
@@DXCommanderHQAmen, and that favorite set of vice-grips!
Actually, the First Rule of Wire Antennas is: Never put a wire antenna up in good weather, it will fall down. 73 OM
HAHA
3rd lol
Nope, FIFTH and the FIRST FALSE FIRST POSER 😂
What if churches, places of worship.. where antennas?
Genuinely on a church? Well in the UK, we have a lot of old churches - and they normally have bell-towers which is an easy fix. On a modern church, around the back.. For VHF, get it HIGH. On HF eg 40m, it doesn't matter so much. If 20m and above, for instance for DX, you really need to be up at least half a wavelength (unless it's a vertical - verticals have lower angle radiation anyway - unless your Yagi or dipole is HIGH))
@@DXCommanderHQ The Pyramids of Giza and the round domes on Mosques and those Russian Orthodox churches.. my thinking is hat 'the word' was transmitted why back when and as time pasted, those in power dumbed us down for control.. Either the structures themselves, but better yet , wires on stand-offs, wires strung out to other structures.. Just a 'brain-fart' as there is all this talk of censorship... as I think has been practiced by the ruling elite many times going back into the ancient past. Religion in the present has mostly lost it direction especially by not engaging in science and technology (as they may have to 'straighten out the books') Do have a chuckle at this..
Rule 4. Don't get your cable nicked. Be careful with strippers.
You need some bananas on top of your doughnut
Ah! Good idea!
very good vidio, but you chat and rush very quick, it says for beginners, please slow down ,
Brian.. You can slow me down with the gear icon to 75%
there are no rules .
Rule 1. There are no rules. Oh wait, we have a rule! :)
The only rule is: what a man can do, and what a man can't do.
I want a good Head banger explanation on the rombic.
V/s gain over full wave loop
When is enough multiple with gain on single frequently @joes973
Shit like this is why no one wanst to get into ham, 3 simple things, spends almost an hour to say 3 sentences.
Tip: As soon as the video starts - it tell you it's a 45 minute presentation. Sod off and grow up.
tip, your hobby is dying and for a reason. Grow up and learn how to accept critisism.@@DXCommanderHQ
@@glitter_fart That's not critisism and you know it. Learn that you were rude and grow up.
@@DXCommanderHQ Cry harder old man. Imagine being your age and whining because someone said something you dont like online. Look in a fucking mirror.
@@glitter_fartYou need to lose some of your anger. I'll send you a mirror :)
I am learning more about RF black magic.🪄
Thanks again Callum.👍🤠
Second!
Excellent Video.
I shared this with a few of my HAM friends who like to build antennas.
Very good info for beginner antenna building.
Thanks for sharing.
de W5KAL
Cool, thanks
another great subject enjoyed every moment of it de MI0TLG William
Glad you enjoyed it