Maybe I'm inching up in my understanding of ham antennas, but surely it has to be the calm ultra-clear way you explain it all, that i sat up and realised that i actually HAD understood all you talked about. Thanks Tim ! Peter ON3VCF

Thanks Tim

Thank you!

Thank you

Nice to see you tim take care

Hi if you can advise me on this I would appreciate it greatly.. I was about to get an FT857 and stopped due to sellers not giving a brief video of radios operating and heard too many stories of broken screens and deaf recievers. I then looked into 817NDs and almost went with it but was thinking will 5W really cut it? Then I looked at sticking to HF and getting an FT891... the ONLY issue is that people say it is too power hungry for outdoor backpack use. I wanted a half rugged transciever so was going to put rails on it and a good waterproof bag etc. Are there any radios I have overlooked? Its amazing how they can make VR and AI and whatever else but they cant make a durable outdoor radio, and sadly, I dont see coming across a harris falcon anytime soon (although that would be ideal). Maybe its this way on purpose

Good to see you out and about Tim. Very interested to see how you get on with the G90. 73s Steve

Missed the fun. Miserable M 25 airport run for granddaughter ! Watching vlog tho’. Thanks Tim. Phil, Suffolk.

Fcukin adverts.... I want to watch Tim, not have my wallet rinsed!

If this is live, I'm not hearing here in Belgium Peter ON3VCF

I had just said to my missis that I shouldn't have cut the lawn !

All working Tim

Adrian M7EFA Brazil on 10M from my usual spot about 20 mins ago.

Would it not be simpler to use a proper "Random wire" for the vertical, a 9:1 unun and just a couple of radials??? Doug

Just stumbled across your channel. Wow! So many videos and presented in a way that resonates with my newbie ham brain. I salute you sir! M7FYY

I am using this antenna since the 2012 and I have always used during my DX Pwd and activation.... I have t say before this I was always using the quarter GP but very annoying to chenga antenna for changing the band... And lot of wire to mount and dismount every time.... The Rybacov is making all band in satisfactory way and you do not need to change it when you change band... I have made a lot ot test also comparing the Rybacov with and Endfed... Available on my blog... In the last two year I was active from Maldives and from Indonesia, and in that occasion I got better result with Endfed.... Anyway I am still thinking the Rybacov has a lot of winning point.. Small place installation, super quickly to mount and dismount, all band available... What else can ask to a portable antenna? Thanks for the video, it was ci firmed 100% all my test. IK1TTD Gianpi.... Www.ik1ttd.it

Late comment but fascinating subject. I have a small town garden, managed to squeeze in a half size G5RV at one point, also tried the standard 9:1 EFW and a GPA 80 vertical. Ironically the best results I have had in terms of dx so far has been using the old Solarcon A99 on 17m, 15m and 10m. Some time later I started to dabble with FT8, so monitored PSK Reporter trying different antennas. Same results. In a way it has dictated I only really use the higher HF bands, which is fine as I prefer those bands. Plus the vertical doesn’t offend the xyl or neighbours unlike having twin feed hanging down in the centre of the garden and wires everywhere. I will eventually try the EFHW at some point though. 73

Hey Tim, Is there any chance to build 40 and 20m dipole in similar setup you are presenting ?

Good advice! 40 meters is always open to somewhere 24 hours a day. The dipole is probably the best antenna for both the beginner and someone like me who has been on the air 60 years. I have put up low portable 40 meter dipoles as low as 3 feet high up to the height of my permanent dipole at almost 50 feet. They all work better than any vertical! I will note that I never needed a balun in 60 years. I did wind one a few years ago but would not do it again. A dipole fed with coax coming off at a near right angle should not need one. A balun is a good idea if you have a highly directive antenna and want to preserve the symmetrical radiation pattern. I always suggest beginners start with one band and learn the fundamentals. Most people work during the day so they need a band open at night (160, 80 or 40). I suggest 40 as it is both day and night. Single band dipoles are about as good as you are going to get with wire antennas. I connect more than one to my coax sometimes and get a great multiband antenna. I presently have a 20 meter dipole and a 10 meter dipole on the same coax. That’s easy to handle. I have had 40/ 20 and 10 on one feedline. Great antenna ( I worked 100 countries on each of 4 bands in one contest on it) for 40, 20, 15 and 10. That’s if you cut the 40 meter dipole for the CW band of 40 so it works on 15 meters. That is a bit more difficult to build than just a 2 band dipole but I have built several. Spacers can be 1/2 pvc pipe. Keep up the great videos!

Finally someone who knows what he is talking about

Worked fine with minor adjustments. Mine was too. sharp on 20 metres. I will have another go when time permits, as it is a great solution at one of my sites. :-)

i a great video btw, im just getting into ham radio and just passed my foundation M7GKI i have a full length g5rv to install but it says i need 45 or 90ft of coax so does that mean 45 for a half size and 90ft for a full size?? hanks

Thanks Tim, excellent video - has given me some ideas for optimizing my recently installed HF vertical :)

Hi Tim, greetings from Devon, I cannot agree more re, the "ampro " range of whip antennas I have the full set and when condx are right ive got some good high spots here not far from home, I use an old "alinco dx 70 trx with an M.F.J 971 portable a.t.u , I do much of my ops from home but it,s nice to get out on a sunny day to the nearest high spot! hope for a q.s.o. some day? 73,s es gd dx, from another Tim, M0TJP...😀...

Excellent video, Tim: Simple, concise and clarifiying concepts. Good! EA6FS - Franc

I wonder if some of the RF in shack is due to the last several feet of ladder line is running along the gutter just outside the radio room. Aluminum gutter may be acting as an antenna due to the induced current from the adjacent ladder line. Try running the ladder line away from the gutter and if it has to get close to it, try to have it perpendicular to the gutter. Just a thought.

Hi Tim. Finally tested your version of this antenna and last Saturday morning 5x7 into Barcelona. The VSWR was 1:2 -1 right across the band. Great antenna build so I recommend it to anyone wishing to get on the air.

Hi, was wondering I’m running a xiegu g90 on ssb 20 watts over a few hours on and of, would a 7amp be sufficient.

Thank you for video Tim, but 102ft dipole fed with ladder line is a G5RV, you comparing 2 G5RVs, one with ladder line to tuner and other one with coax extension to tuner, both are G5RVs. Doublet is an 1/2 wave length dipole fed with ladder line. Thank you for info, of course ladder line to tuner without coax will have a better results. 88 ft is interesting antenna, but its not a doublet, its something else.

I've bought one of these on the basis of your video. I got the SB40, dynamic, as I already had the adapter for my Behringer boom mic. Works really well with plenty of good audio reports. Thanks Tim

Nice video thanks for sharing it with us, I'd like to build one for 70 centimeters, can you please tell me the formula in order to calculate the length? I am a new ham waiting for my call sign and I can't wait to start!!

Don't buy aerials. It's supposed to be a technical doing hobby. You're not likely to build a 3 element Yagi for 20m but dipoles or inverted vee are so easy to make and tune, or long wires or a doublet with a tuner, both multiband. And you save money, wire is cheap! When I started with 100 Watts and 60 foot long wire I worked VK on 20m. Good for 80m to 10m with a tuner. I made a Joystick copy last year, 160m to 10m with 26 feet of wire. Not efficient on Top Band but it gets me on. Bill, G4GHB.

I use two dipoles for my contesting on 20 meters. One on Europe (NE/SW) and one N/S for South America and Asia. Makes a big difference when I switch them. The ( new) N/S antenna on 20 really made a difference on working China and Japan this past year as well as letting me run South America. For the 10 meter contest ( since it’s not just a DX contest) I pull up a third 10 meter dipole due East and West to give me better US west coast coverage if the band opens for shorter skip. Switching between the antennas makes a significant difference. Some directions more than others of course. Two of my dipoles are dual band 20/10 meter dipoles, some times called fan dipoles, single band dipoles for each band on one coax.

Good presentation. I have done a lot with verticals as well as dipoles ( not as detailed as Rudy) and I wish to note that Rudy’s findings are definitely consistent with all I have done. I just hope no one thinks the 7.5 foot antenna has more gain than the 1/4 wave antenna! It’s just that the worst antennas benefit the most from the first set of radials.

Very good series. Maybe you could extend it a bit? I may be wrong but I did not catch it if you mentioned the Brewster angle. Or the Pseudo Brewster angle that affects verticals? That may make the 5 degree elevation angle a bit optimistic. Discussions of this appear in many manuals but I call attention to the ON4UN Low Band DXing book 5th edition. ( earlier editions had some mistakes hat were corrected). Even though it is a Low Band book it covers the Pseudo Brewster angle from 1.5 to 30 MHz in figure 9-4. Below the angle the reflected wave subtracts from the direct wave, above the angle it adds and at the angle radiation is down 6 dB from “ perfect ground” patterns. It seems your reference point is the 1/4 wave vertical with 16 radials. The chart equates that to about -9 dB. I am not sure what the 0 dB point is. I have done lots of modeling of verticals and dipoles over the years. The vertical angle is quite significant and Lewallen in his EZNEC manual speaks to the problem of modeling low angle radiation from a vertical. I would like to know what the zero dB point is on your chart. I always like to use dBi as it is a universal reference point that is easy to understand and easy for modeling programs to calculate / use as a reference. I have always found that being broadside to a reasonably high dipole gave significant gain over a single vertical that was not over seawater. The seawater lowers the Brewster angle to near 1 degree over the complete 1.5 to 30 MHz range! It appears nearly impossible to have it at 5 degrees above 3.5 MHz and 10 degrees is even hard to attain where 15 degrees is almost always possible. I typically discount any results below 15 degrees in my modeling. I also model horizontal antennas at that same angle for comparisons. It seems to be a good angle. Maybe you could throw in a dipole for reference and also the elevation angle profile and lobes from the verticals. I know it’s a complicated subject and no antenna covers all directions and angles. We have to compromise a lot with antennas. A great DX antenna may not be worth a hoot at 1000 miles as I have seen first hand! 73 de N4DJ

Great video! How do you power the radio in the Ford Mondeo? I guess not via the cigarette lighter?!

Hi Tim, I m from the netherlands , i have a small garden from 33 feet long, how long is the 300 ladder line? thanks great video Lauw

Very interesting video, full of practical information, thanks. I will assume that all these non-resonant antennas need a 1:4 or 1:9 unun, don't they? I use vertical 1/4 wave wire antennas for 10m and 20m, but I mount them with four elevated, 1/4 wave radials. Feed point is 2.5-4m from the ground. I wonder what kind of difference it makes in terms of efficiency vs. ground-mounted radials.

I know one can't always do this, but elevated radials work a lot better. It takes a lot less wire requiring three to four ground radials. The folks at Motorola found that two elevated radials work just fine. Of course this is without knowing how high and what frequency these antennas were modeled on. In short, soil is lossy and should be eliminated from the antenna as much as possible.

what software are you using to log the contacts?

can you show the working of this antenna please if possible!

Yaesu menu's always suck when it comes to user friendlyness,

Thank U very much for this very interesting video!

Thanks for sharing… you need a chalk board to explain it. Thanks. 😀

hi just seen this i have 42ft wide by 30ft hight whot can i get on hf bands