One of the many joys of being a ham radio operator is building antennas. I’ve covered the L-Match tuner and long wire antenna in the past, and while it’s a great way to get on the air, a resonant antenna is always nice- if you have the room for it. When you’ve only got 5w of power to play with, efficiency matters, and sot it’s good to try out different antennas to see what works best for you.
Since I converted my BITX40 to 20 meters, it has opened up new possibilities. I now have the ability to build resonant antennas that were a bit too big before. An Inverted V dipole is only about 16 feet per side, easily small enough for my back yard.
I borrowed the 23′ antenna pole from my long wire, and erected an 20m inverted V using some zip ties and a broken camera tripod. I started out with just a basic BNC panel connector on a plastic card, and when it started raining, it started failing! I devised a new center center that you see in the pictures below, with hot glue for weather protection. Hopefully it can live up to the Pacific NorthWet winter!
You’ll notice that in one of the pictures there is a jug of water hanging from the center of the tripod to weigh the whole thing down when the wind picks up. I was going to install it more permanently at a later date, but this stuck- it’s held up for a few years now.
There’s a video about it on YouTube:
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Great article Ryan, I ran an inverted V strung in a tree for years.
Wow. This is my kind of antennae and budget friendly ideas. Thank you.
[…] start. I’ve used mine to do everything from building a microphone for my BITX40 to building a dipole center that is weatherproof even in heavy […]