I ran across a
small, lightweight, match box, end fed, 6-40 Meter antenna from the
EARCH (Emergency Amateur Radio Club of Honolulu).
Well I ordered the kit Vs. the completed unit, as I wanted to build it from scratch for $40-.
Got the kit in five days from order, this past Monday and built it Tuesday night in ~ 2 hours. Once I built it I ran it along the eves of the cabin, situated North/South, hooked up an existing coax to my Kenwood HF transceiver, tuned the wire and immediately answered a CQ call from Michigan on 40 Meters.
After that contact made two more. One from Connecticut and another from Florida. Not bad from this little antenna.
Although I made all of my contacts on 40 meters, I did hear several ragchews in Spanish and English on 20 meters and several nets on 75/80 Meters.
Comparing this matchbox antenna vs. my g5rv+ from Radio Works in Virginia it was a bit noisy; however, I will remind the reader that it was loosely draped under my porch eves. I was unable to pick up the CT. station on my g5rv+ but was with that little matchbox. I am sure the North/South situation helped with this contact.
In closing, it was so easy to build as everything came with the kit. MrsMac even contacted that it must have been an easy build as she didn't hear any cussing from me. LOL.
Check it out...I liked it!
