Antennas by N6LF

Since I was first licensed over 70 years ago antennas have been a passion for me. These days amateurs rarely design and build their own equipment but antennas are often home brewed. Interesting projects which can improve station performance at modest cost. Over seventy years ago Tom Erdmann, W7DND (SK), told me that if I had $100, I should spend the first $90 on the antenna, the next $9 for the receiver and the final $1 on the transmitter. Of course prices have gone up bit since then but those proportions are still sound advice. I have a lot more time and effort invested in my antennas than in station equipment.

Over the years I've published many articles and notes on antennas some of which may be of help to amateurs. This web site provides access to these. The work reported here is a mix of analytic (calculations), NEC modeling and field experiments on actual antennas. Each has its place but the best picture emerges when all three techniques are combined. The material on this site is relatively narrow in scope. For many years my interest has been focused on 40m down to 2200m, bands where vertical antennas are likely to be the primary transmitting antenna. That’s why most of the material concerns verticals and their ground systems with emphasis on 630m and 2200m. Some of the material is in the form of finished ARRL publications like QST and QEX. However, much of it is quite informal reflecting my thoughts on some point of interest to me at the time. Even after more than a hundred years antennas are still a rich field for investigation and innovation. They can also be a whole lot of fun.

In addition to the antenna material I have included copies of some of my profession papers and two books related to DC-DC power conversion which have been occasionally asked for.

My ARRL articles

Over the years I've often posted articles I've written for ARRL periodicals but not all of them have been posted and those that have are not all that easy to locate on my very informally arranged site. Here are 36 of my current articles:

Download Antenna Compendium V4 1995 Double Extended Zepp

Download Antenna Compendium V5 1996 Broadbanding Half Square

Download Antenna compendium V5 1996 Low-band halfsquare array

Download Antenna compendium V6 1999 Monster Quads

Download Antenna compendium V6 1999 Short radials

Download Com Quarterly 1997 Lazy-H Vertical

Download NCJ Mar-Apr 2003 Single Support Gain Antennas for 80 and 160m

Download NCJ May-Jun 2009 3-Element 160m Vertical Array

Download NCJ Sept-Oct 2000 Gain Antennas for 80 and 160m

Download QEX Jan-Feb 2004 Sloper Arrays

Download QEX Jan-Feb 2009 ground systems part 1

Download QEX Jan-Feb 2009 Ground systems part-2

Download QEX Jan-Feb 2010 Ground systems part 7

Download QEX Jul-Aug 2009 Ground systems part-5

Download QEX Jul-Aug 2015 Rr Part I

Download QEX Jul-Aug 2018 Tree Conductivity

Download QEX Jul-Aug 2024 Radiation Resistance

Download QEX Mar-Apr 1999 Another view of verticals

Download QEX Mar-Apr 2009 Ground systems part-3

Download QEX Mar-Apr 2012 Elevated Gnd systems part 1

Download QEX Mar-Apr 2018 Insulated Wire Degration

Download QEX May-Jun 2002 Foil Conductors

Download QEX May-Jun 2009 Ground systems part-4

Download QEX May-Jun 2012 Elevated Gnd Systems part 2

Download QEX May-Jun 2013 short verticals for 160m

Download QEX Nov-Dec 2000 antenna wire conductors

Download QEX Nov-Dec 2006 Soil Parameters at HF

Download QEX Nov-Dec 2009 ground systems part-6

Download QEX Nov-Dec 2016 Soil characteristics using low dipole

Download QEX Sept-Oct 2015 Rr Part II

Download QEX Sept-Oct 2016 2-loop rx antenna

Download QEXJul-Aug 2016 BOG

Download QST July 1995 Wideband 80m dipole

Download QST July 2000 Vertical Ground systems

Download QST June 2016 BOG

Download QST March 2010 Ground System Experiments

The ARRL has generously published many of my antenna notes but that’s only a small part. The following is a collection of my unpublished antenna notes:

In my professional life as an electrical engineer I published a number of IEEE papers and other technical articles along with three books. Professionally I was primarily concerned with DC-DC power conversion and power MOSFET applications. Unfortunately I do not have digital copies of all my work. The following is what I do have: