Every wonder what that SWR reading really means?
Here is a very good article that explains SWR, what happens to reflected power when you use an antenna tuner and just what gets out of the antenna.
The 7 Truths About Antenna / Tuner Systems
The Coax Calculator Calculates COAX line losses, easy to use, good information.
Here are some EZ to make antennas to get u on the air!
- The J-Pole
- The J-Pole is a very easy to construct antenna for the UHF and VHF frequencies. There are a multitude of designs and construction techniques from using 300 ohm twin lead for a fold up, carry in your pocket antenna to one made from copper tubing.
- Copper Cactus 2Meter J Pole
The J Pole is a very basic ez to construct antenna. Made of copper water pipe it is indestructible and will give you 440 MHz too!
I use this exact antenna in the crawl space above my garage and it works great! - A J-Pole Calculator
- Lots of J-Pole ideas
- 1/2 Wavelength Dipole
- Dipoles are the workhorse of the HF bands. The dipole is the bases for many different types of antennas including the Yagi, which use a dipole for the active element. It is hard to beat a wire dipole strung up at the correct height when the bands are open. Easy and inexpensive to make they are usually ham’s first antenna.
- 1/2 wavelength dipole calculator:
- The Windom
- a very popular off-center fed (dipole) antenna. One antenna can be used on most HF bands with the use of an antenna tuner. The N4SER site at the Red Cross uses a Windom.