Increasing the Directional Gain of an EFHW Antenna

Experimenting with an Inverted L EFHW antenna to increase directional gain #hamradio #amateurradio #efhw

[@weimaraner3240]

I love it when the ham receiving my signal uses a beam antenna to point toward me.

[@quadcam24v]

I have had good luck with a home made EFHW cut for 40m, running up a 9m squid pole and then across to whatever trees are around in the area. I also lay a 10m counterpoise along the length of the antenna. Works great straight into a G90 using the internal tuner, and tunes up fine up to 80m.

[@temporarilyoffline]

Always fun to see what happens in the real world... who knows, you might stumble onto the next genius idea!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Yep! I’ll probably have Wile E Coyote sponsor that video hahaha

[@mikeofborg2]

I use an Inverted L for 160-6 meters. I have mine fed at the base of the vertical portion with an air variable cap. The fed point is at 47 Ohms according to my MFJ 269 analyzer. I love it. I have made contacts well into Eastern Europe and East Asia from my QTH in NW Ohio.

[@moga864]

I figured out how to get the portable EFLW to cooperate on 75-SSB based on the *smallest* detail shared of your setup. Today was the third occasion that after working through 15-17-20-40 that I successfully activated the band, and I think it is overdue to come back to show appreciation. Many thanks Walt. Your videos rocked before helping this op to overcome his low band difficulty. Thanks for all that you do.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you so much for the kind words!

[@n8vox]

Who can’t love a video brought to you by the letter L! I did indeed LOL at that! Thanks for another encouraging video. Stay safe over there!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks so much my friend! It’s a cold snowy day here and I’m off work and inside playing radio.

[@patriot9455]

You have encouraged me. I think you had 2 sponsors for this video, The letter L, But your long term sponsor is the letter Y. Never lose that one.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

I never will my friend!!!

[@kastaways1259]

Exactly the video I was looking for , I am pretty much doing an identical install here next week . Extra excited now . Thanks for posting this - Jeff VE7GMX.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for watching Jeff! Good luck with the antenna!

[@mariot6959]

Hi, thanks for this video, i am planning to move to an apartment, and was planning to experiment with an inverted L for 20 m, thank you for the gain explanation , and the L angle being where the most gain is, two valuable pieces of information, 73's

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for watching and commenting Mario! Good luck in your new setup!

[@andy2E0JIU]

Hi Walt,I tried both your configurations but then I put the 49:1 at bottom of my 12m pole,ran it up vertical approx 35ft then across horizontal the rest of the way n this definitely seemed to work better for dx and local combined :)

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing

[@gaptastic]

Great video Walt! The hacker mindset is the reason I got into this hobby! Be safe out there and look forward to another video!!!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks so much! 73!

[@MikeN2MAK]

F- around and find out. It's a great way to learn and have fun. Thanks for another good video. Safe travels and good DX.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Exactly! Thanks my friend!

[@Drew_Pearson]

This is really neat Walt - you've got me wanting to try out one of these end fed dipoles! Maybe my next diy project... It seems like the end fed is a really perfect travel antenna because of it's simplicity, ease of setup, and you've just shown that you can "aim" it by just bending down the end. Thanks for the practical demonstration!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks Drew, it’s a great travel antenna, you can make it a sloper, inverted L, V or you can just throw it up in a tree as a vertical. Very simple and easy. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@wb6msa]

Hey Walt, I always enjoy your videos, for being both easy to follow and for the content as I have some similar interests. But most of all, I appreciate how clear and easy the information is to use. Keep up the great work! Mike WB6MSA

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you so much Mike!!

[@brian.7966]

I tried doing exactly what you have done but found that the SWR was off the scale and the noise was unbearable so what I did I reversed it and fed the 49/1 down the garden and fed it with coax, now SWR is perfect and the noise decreases a hell of a lot. now getting great results.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Awesome, thanks for sharing

[@polishpicl]

I use ef inverted L only..i am so happywith it i use 73 ft..and 9 to1 unun. I am extremely happy with it....

[@StuartM0TTQAmateurRadio]

Great vid but I love the bit of Sesame St at the end. The directionality works the same way if you feed it from the other end of the L with the transformer at the base of the vertical in my experience.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks Stuart! Yes I will probably try that configuration when I’m portable by the water someday. All the best and 73 from Sesame Street 😂

[@darrellcollins877]

i use end fed, inverted L, 1/4 wave wire antennas. No balun required. a 160M wire, 40M wire, 30M wire, 20M wire, all connected together off of one coax. They work great ! Haven't looked for gain in the direction they point, I will certainly look now ! Thanks

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Awesome, thanks for watching!

[@DonzLockz]

"Brought to you by the letter L" haha! Great video Walt, I didn't know that you could make them more directional.🍻🤠👍

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

😂😂😂

[@andy2E0JIU]

Great video Walt thankyou,gonna do some experimenting with my efhw now 👍👍

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you Andy!

[@timg5tm941]

Great experiment Walt! Keep them coming!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you Tim!

[@k2icc]

With a 49:1 transformer, my inverted L do 40, 20 and 15 very well and with a Palstar AT2K, the best on 160-6, including 6m repeaters freqs. 100W dx and excellent around East US.

[@iu1olr]

I love EFHW antennas it's very simple and versatile, it doesn't require a tuner and works different bands! he always give me DX vouchers also QRP

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Me too!!

[@HouseOfThe8Strings]

Hey Walt, great video! Watching you operate in Poland got me curious about the process. I looked you up on QRZ and found you are a General class license holder. I recently upgraded to General and noticed in the video you were operating outside of the US General band limits. After some quick research, I found that you were in fact operating perfectly legally while in Poland! I am by no means criticizing, I just found this super interesting! Thanks for the great content! I''m going to try out the inverted L EFHW soon! KM4EBM

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

I’ve actually done a couple videos on the CEPT process and operating in Europe. It’s really a simple process. Yes the rule for bands is that I operate under the band plan for the country I’m in, I get all of 20 here in Poland but as a General I can’t use 17 or 12 meters so that was a loss but I’ll be good when I get back, I’m taking the Extra exam in January.. 73, K4OGO

[@DXJungle]

Great video! Thank you and special thanks to Letter L. 😆 🍪

[@JhKnife-OZ4HJ-Jimmi]

Cool antenna. Hope to catch you on the band some day…👍🏼 let know next time you point the antenna in the Scandinavia direction.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Will do! I will be here in Poland for a few more weeks.

[@dawgrules1]

Esp as a newb, I LOVE the letter L haha!! Thanks Walt, good info as usual - Jeff KK7SRM

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you for watching! 73, Walt

[@M7XCB]

I did the same thing I have 134 feet I had it flat at 1st it was great and now I've got End fed box 1 feet off the ground and to goes up about 17 18 feet and the same at the end of the antenna it drop down 18 feet it Made a big difference especially on the high bands excellent on 10 m.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Awesome, thanks for sharing

[@kennethblackwell1137]

Walt, well done... I may have to try this with one of my EFHW antennas. Cool that the G90 would tune up 80.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks! Yes that’s a testimonial to the G90 ATU for sure. 73 my friend!

[@rademaartje1]

@@COASTALWAVESWIRES I have a squared EFHW and like all my end-feds I used, all tuned on 80 meter with the internal tuner. A EFHW of 10 meter long you can tune also on 40 meterband. the 49:1 UNUN I make from insulated wire in one peace and no soldering to it. Just use clamp connections. also no box around it, but vulcanization tape.

[@Capt_Duffy]

very interesting video !! just to share I erected an inv L EFHW couple of weeks back as an experiment, 30ft vertical and about 35ft horizontal, wanted to compare it with a 40-10m Doublet inv V.....I found Doublet to be a better antenna overall, there was not much difference in the TX efficiency but Doublet was much much better on the Noise Rejection...so overall i found Doublet a better antenna but as you said it doesn't look like an exact science.....but key to enjoyment is Antenna experimenting.....thanx keep the interesting videos coming...73s..

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks! And thanks for sharing the experiment! 73, Walt K4OGO

[@w4mkh]

A suggestion. Try listening to your signal using several web based SDRs scattered around Europe.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Great idea!

[@mortimersnerd801]

....what you really built was 1/2 a quad... well sorta. 1/2 your radiation is vertically polarized the other half horizontal...The vertical part is going to have an omnidirectional pattern which I suspect from your results, and if from an angle of 25 or 30 degrees to the horizon, would correspond to your excellent medium/short skip results on 20. The horizontal part will be off the sides. Radiation from the vertical portion will make up for the null off the ends of that antenna, and there will likely be little or no cross polarization in the directions of the null. I have an EFHW.. and a Xeigu G90... gotta try this.

[@dandypoint]

Do you use EZNEC to model antennas? I use it a lot. The pattern of a halfwave horizontal antenna is the same end fed or center fed for all practical purposes in the real world. However there is definitely a skew in the pattern toward the down side if it is not installed horizontally. The half wave end fed antenna on 80 will load and work quite well as a quarter wave top loaded vertical in the same manner as my 165 foot long 160 meter Inverted L. Again with a slight skew to the low side of the flat top. I go longer than a quarter wave so I can simply tune out the inductive reactance with a variable capacitor.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

I have MMANA but to be honest I’m just getting familiar with it. Interesting input, thanks for commenting.

[@JayN4GO]

Seems like this is not an inv L? Correct me if I’m wrong. The feedpoint needs to be at ground level at some point? Not really on a second story window with a ground counterpoise hanging down. Also the higher the vertical section, the better the antenna works for the L purpose? I’ve noticed very little difference in running the antenna in all 3 configurations. I guess we go back to it’s a wire. And there’s no gain unless another element is added. Always fun to tinker with antennas though I don’t expect any significant changes 😁

[@dandypoint]

@@JayN4GO Jay, this is an “inverted” L but not the typical inverted L we usually talk about. The classic Inverted L is a top loaded vertical. This one is fed from the opposite end. As with all antennas the current at the tip end is near zero and builds up as you move away from the end. Depending on the vertical height and frequency the vertical part can change from being simply loading the horizontal wire to actually being a vertical radiating element. In almost all cases you can bend the end of a wire, the part where the current is low, up or down and not reduce the effectiveness of the horizontal part by very much. In fact a half wave dipole can have its tip ends bent down so that the center horizontal part is only a third of what it was and you might not even notice the decrease in signal strength! There will of course be some reduction but even as much as 3 dB is usually hard to tell.

[@JayN4GO]

@@dandypoint Tnx bud! I’m not sure why I’m not seeing your videos. KZbin maybe hiding you. I saw your post in Fb group with Jason.

[@ORMO1993]

Couple weeks ago i did some test. 1/4 wl vert vs. EFHW 8010, where the feed point was on a 10 m pole on 3,5 m height balcony. I found that vertical was much much more effective that end fed. both of them were used without ATU, tuned in a middle of 20m band. Thats my opinion. Maybe i did a mistake and i shoul feed it on the height, not on the bottom of the pole. And of course - thats confirmed - the more counterpoises the better. Take care! SP7EZG, thank you for the channel!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for sharing Artur! Interesting experiment. And yes the more counterpoise the better. 73 de K4OGO

[@ORMO1993]

@@COASTALWAVESWIRES i think i should do the trick, and Put the feed point higher than on the bottom of the pole. Take care!

[@agoraphobicadam1171]

Brought to you by the letter L. lol Cool antenna and jokes to start my morning, Thanks. KO4HPC 73

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hahaha we all grew up with Sesame Street, have a great day my friend!

[@robertvandersanden]

Hi Walt, good experiment. I’ve done the same thing here in my garden. I ran a horizontal EFHW from the attic to a nearby tree and at some point decided to drop the last 5.5 meters down to form an inv L. Since I did this I get out further, towards south eastern Europe (I am in the Netherlands). Much easier to make DX contacts then before. I don’t find that it has more directionality, it seems to still be omnidirectional, just with a slight gain at lower take off angles. Depends more on the day to day solar activity which direction works better. At least that’s my experience after 3 years of having the antenna like this. 73, de PB7RS

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hi Robert, Thanks for your interesting input. 73 de K4OGO

[@W3OY-RAY]

My main antenna that I use at home is an EFHW in an inverted L. It's a little different though. Mine starts @ 3" off the ground then goes vertical for 45' then out to a pole @ 35' high. I have mine pointed kind of over Africa towards Australia. I feel like the gain helps. I'm very happy with it and get worldwide coverage on 40-10. Mine also tunes up on 80 as well. Very nice video. Maybe I'll try it sometime, your way.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching. Hope to catch you on the bands. 73, Walt K4OGO

[@downsouthsafaris6788]

ZS1FSX here Walt howzit - I stand under correction here but it’s my understanding that this is not an inverted L, rather a horizontal L which is basically a cloud warmer. As described above an inverted L starts close to the ground risers vertically then the tail is horizontal. An EFHW acts like a Dipole in so much as the take off point is at the centre of resonance along the wire (a vertical has the take off at the base) so measuring the directional angle is at 90 degrees to the centre of resonance. Hence describing your set up as a cloud warmer it’s radiating predominantly vertically. Try switching things around take the transformer 49:1 unun to the base of the pole run the wire vertically and then the tail towards your window. Ground the coax braid side to a ground stake I suspect you’ll get much better distance. In my experience the tail provides a bending to the angle of take off so in this case it’ll still be orientated towards west but will be much flatter

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

@@downsouthsafaris6788 theoretically I’m sure you are correct. This was just an experiment feeding it from the other end to adapt to my situational circumstances and see how it performed directionally. All the best and 73.

[@paulsengupta971]

@@downsouthsafaris6788 I don't think it will make much difference, whichever end you feed, the middle will always be in the same place. When you say "a vertical has the take off at the base", you mean a quarter wave vertical with a ground plane? You are effectively centre feeding a dipole at the ground.

[@walterbeaton5056]

Hello, Walt. Really enjoyed the video! That transformer looks familiar!! ;-) 73, Walt NE4TN (TennTennas)

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hi Walt! Yes it’s an awesome transformer and it’s traveling the world with me!! Thanks for such an awesome build!

[@battlestarone]

Feed it at base of vertical section,,,coax can radiate and feeding it at shack end can cause rf problem in shack,,choke coax off before coax enters the shack or use counter poise or earth at base of vertical feed point,,,try an L match at feed point although this will require physical ajusting for changing bands,,,if you eant real directivity try 2 or 3 element vertical ground mount beam.

[@michaelpoczynek]

Cool! I really need to learn some antenna theory. 73 DE VY2MJ. 😀

[@LevyCarneiro]

Great video, I’m thinking how I can try this from my balcony. I use an inverted V EFHW with say 30% length in the second leg, and some 30 degrees opening between them looking top down. I figured it would give a little more unidirectionality than a standard horizontal configuration. Maybe try an inverted V EFHW sometime :) Stay safe out there in Poland!

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks! I’ll experiment with an Inverted V eventually, I’m interested in how it will perform here. All the best and good DX! Walt K4OGO

[@laszlokovacs8827]

Great video Walt. Keep 'em coming. Did you DIY that transformer? Looking forward to seeing future videos on this subject.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

No I actually bought the transformer complete. It’s a TennTennas 49:1. Thanks for the kind words!

[@hamradioqrp-k0klb]

haha.. what a great sponsor.. How do I find one of those.. Maybe the circus (specifically the abnormal shows) could sponsor some of my videos, LOL.. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.. always fun to watch.. Stay safe.. 73, Kevin ~ k0klb

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hahaha thanks Kevin! I’ll send Oscar your way! 73 my friend!

[@beemcbike]

Hi Walt, that’s what Ham is all about. I like these wires, you can do a lot with them. Have you tried the same wire your using here an make a Halfsquare. 5m vertical, 10m horizontal and the rest going down. I had a blast with it, and the noise floor goes down. Tnx for your Video 73 HB3XBL 😤🇨🇭

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for watching! Yes I have, I actually have a video of the half square here on the channel

[@davidlucas6837]

I do this with a portable setup. I have the 49:1 balun at almost ground level, feed 5m vertical up my pole, then the remainder is a sloper down to nearly ground level, so similar in lots of different ways! G8XDD

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Awesome! Thanks for watching and commenting. 73, Walt K4OGO

[@JReed305]

Hadn't thought to do a EFHW as an inverted L. I have a 1/4 wave inverted L for 80m and it is a real performer for just being some speaker wire.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

I love speaker wire for antennas. Our local Walmart in the States is always out of the $19 Monster speaker cable because I buy it all LOL

[@JReed305]

@@COASTALWAVESWIRES same with my local Home Depot. I am always buying up their 18awg speaker wire lol

[@pasjeihobby]

I love your hoodie 🤜🤛😁

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

🇵🇱 Dziękuję 🇵🇱

[@denelson83]

At home, I am limited to not having an outside antenna at all. I live in an apartment, and hanging a wire or cable out my window breaches the terms of my lease.

[@battlestarone]

Try an L match at feed point,,also could try a reflective array at rear of antenna,,,think that would work well.

[@petermajor4599]

Great

[@KH07734]

I have the zepp version of the 49:1 efhw and I am unable to counterpoise it and have a 66’ wire in a L shape due to my lack of property. This gives a lot of noise on 80 and 160 even with a LDG 1:1 UNUN choke. I have to do some experimenting whe the weather gets better here in Joisy.

[@vu3mes]

I have the same setup here in Chennai and my best contact so far is Oslo Norway with 20 watts. You can reduce your swr further down from what I see in your video which is almost touching 2. Anyway great little radio, use it exclusively for ssb voice contacts and dx. Namaste 73 De vu3mes Satyan

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for commenting, yes I’ve gotten the SWR. I was spinning the dial and making quick replies on some of those calls and could have gotten the transceiver in better tune for sure. 73 de K4OGO Walt

[@k4nyxradio485]

An idea You should try half square configured for 20m with the 40m efhw. The impedance Match with the efhw on bottom corner is spot on. May have to adjust a little but you will get some nice gain on the broadsides.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Great idea, I actually have a half square for 20 with me that’s fed from the top corner but my two poles just won’t support it. I may put this wire up and experiment.

[@k4nyxradio485]

Walt you will have a blast. Great for dx. On 40 it’s pretty much the norm however you will have some gain on 20m especially on the long haul

[@w4orh-ron]

K4NYX -- My thoughts exactly! Waters & Stanton channel did an episode on the bottom corner fed half square a few months ago, and I'm currently building one to use with my 1.5 KW station. They typically use a 49:1 transformer and have a broadside gain pattern. I'll send a link to the W&S episode.

[@w4orh-ron]

See: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYqyaXybj82Fd6M

[@ggggg4030]

For me, the unun would need to be at the base of the vertical section, but I never see it recommended. Why is that?

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Actually I believe the performance would be better your way at the base.

[@ve2zdx]

Nice video Walt! We are waiting for you here in the dark side if the RF (CW) =] 73's

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hahaha I’ll get there!!! 73

[@georgeriedel9357]

GREAT STUFF

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you!

[@wynandwolmarans6689]

did u try reverse and feed from the vertical side 3m up and test whats the difference? also your rf anny issues diferent coax lengths excetra and noise sure like u test it in reverse order and see if difference

[@theramblingsoflarry9290]

Watching you talk in the radio, I believe the ALC is in the red. Right in the middle of the screen it goes from green to red is that normal

[@dangermandave67]

Were you running the pre-amp or the attenuator on the G90 for the UK QSO? Video resolution isn't good enough to read it. Also, what is the gain like in the direction opposite the heel? I'm in Utah and would like to be able to work stations in NV and CA, but would also be good to work stations to the east (WY, CO).

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Just the pre-amp with no attenuator. Opposite of the heel for me was Russia behind me, I honestly couldn’t give you a solid TX answer on that because I really didn’t try to make any QSO’s in that direction but RX was pretty solid, I was continually hearing R stations.

[@radioactive8772]

I wonder what the WSPR results would look like

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Yeah, that would be interesting.

[@k2icc]

Will that length work with the MFJ-998RT straight to wire nut and no 48:1?? That tuner can use a wire connected directly to it, so not sure if we then have to use 468/freq.

[@theramblingsoflarry9290]

What was the length of the long wire and the shorter one

[@willian.direction6740]

Interesting config inverted L with feed point up high and end dropping vertically. I usually do it the opposite way around so keen to try your way. vk5cz ..

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for watching and commenting. I’m going to try different configurations as well. 73, Walt K4OGO

[@wdtech_9]

good job......

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thank you!

[@airheadzradioadventures]

That the tenntennas unun?

[@Hypercubeaudio]

I have a similar set up and it seems to work well, my window is Upvc. I am curious to know what type of window you got there?

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

That window was Upvc as well

[@Hypercubeaudio]

@@COASTALWAVESWIRES Roger that 😇

[@jamesbellke8saf645]

hello walt,,,,,KE8SAF great video,i may have to have you design an antenna for me

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for watching James! There are so many great antennas out there, grab some wire and experiment my friend!!!

[@KAIBO-RUGBY]

Helo

[@johnrees44..G4EIJ]

Very interesting..Thank you.. John..G4EIJ

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Thanks for watching John! 73, Walt K4OGO

[@daveN2MXX]

Did you increase directional gain, or just decrease gain in the other directions 🤔

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

According to modeled plots of this configuration I increased directional gain. My results using this convinced me that is the case.

[@kellypaws]

You absolutely do get gain in that direction. I used an inverted L on 80m and had a really significant difference in reports in each direction. Obviously, the direction with gain was completely bloody useless to me, and it wasn't possible to reverse the direction. Because of course it would.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Yes it was fun to experience it. Thanks for watching!

[@ralphnunn3]

'Brought to you by the letter L.' I got a smile out of that one. DE K7RLN

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Hahaha 73 de K4OGO

[@Oldnoitall]

Fine Business. KE4TDG. 73

[@toomas.t6736]

hello Walt, don’t forget you have access to 60m as well in Europe, see u on air, 73. es7tom.

[@COASTALWAVESWIRES]

Yes! Thanks! 73 de SP/K4OGO