X-Tenna End Fed Half Wave Switchable Multi Band Antenna

[@dxporker]

I got one and I love it. I have one because he’s making them and the other company seems to not be. 😉

[@MrStanwyck]

I feel your pain. I got tired of waiting for a Packtenna EFHW to be in stock. I made my own end fed half wave for doing SOTA.

[@EdwardGriffin]

Not only a good review of this antenna, but also showcases what a good unit the Rig Expert Stick Pro is as well. Thanks Mike.

[@hankfox4170]

I had the same thought. Understaning that there was some "camera magic" involved, it's still a lot faster across multiple bands than my NanoVNA (which I love!). Think I'm going to pick one up.

[@Philip-KA4KOE]

I just made my own EFHW from scratch. My measurements came out to 19.92 meters and it's killer on 40-10m. I remembered this video and checked after the fact....when I was trimming I didn't remember your measurement. 49:1 ratio and T240-43 toroid.

[@michaeledmonds3027]

Half the price of a Packtenna, plus three-way transformer, great build....and available! Just received mine before Dayton. Thanks for the review!

[@Zach-K7FC]

I need to play with mine more, I had some weird initial readings and didn't take the time to tune it. Thanks for the motivation to take it with me next time and tune it.

[@UABFWSS]

Got one a couple weeks ago, works fantastic. Surprised how nice & low the swr #'s are across the board.

[@BradSnyder1]

Very nice looking antenna Mike. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[@alvarogaitan2529]

Another fantastic fantastic video from Jamison God bless you Jamison you are number uno

[@ryankc9oza118]

I ordered one after seeing ham radio dudes review. Havent got to try it out yet. But arrived quickly

[@hamradiotube]

What are you waiting for?!?!

[@ryankc9oza118]

@K8MRD RADIO STUFF farming season. Gotta plant the crop, so it can grow, so can harvest it, so can sell it, so have money, then take money and buy radios. 😉

[@thed8229]

I've had mine for a year & done multiple QRP POTA activations with it. I made up two counterpoise wires for it with banana plugs. Works like a champ. Zero complaints. K0ATV

[@DaveW6OOD]

Thanks for the vid. I got one of the 49:1s (older model in blue) and the Switchable red one a while back. I would feel bad about not getting a Packtenna as an obvious inspiration to this, but they are always out of stock when I try to buy them. It also let me easily experiment with the 49-56-64:1 option questions. That unique variation makes it a worthwhile product in my view. My tuned result is dead nuts on target either way. Your tuned result is a perfect CW antenna. It's like having 3 different switchable tweaks in one great antenna.

[@hamradiotube]

Yeah I hear ya. That's about the only complaint you'll ever hear about PackTenna is availability. It's just a side project for him. He's got a regular full time job. When he has them he has them, and they go quick. Only way to know is to join packtenna.groups.io/g/main

[@PendejoRyan]

I have one and used on 15M and got Scotland and UK. Great antenna

[@hamradiotube]

You sure did

[@t.j.speakman7723]

Thanks Mike, Always good stuff from your videos

[@ronpetroski]

my next antenna for field days

[@rickhartnett3971]

Great review, thanks a lot!

[@hamradiotube]

You bet!

[@gregmihran8616]

That "multi-tap transformer" is fantastic and definitely differentiates this look-alike antenna! I'm amazed no one else has leveraged that concept. I've always said I'd love a variable transformer for my homebrew antennas and was going to build one but I just may experiment with this. See you again on 10M FM soon buddy 😀 73 KJ6ER

[@PendejoRyan]

Waa hoooo!

[@hamradiotube]

Woo-hoo!! Maybe if you were using one of these instead of your predator antennas you would have heard me calling park to park yesterday!

[@gregmihran8616]

@@hamradiotube LOL Mike! Well ... maybe if YOU were on my PREDator antenna, you would have heard me on a P2P yesterday! Wooooo hooooo brother 🤣 73 KJ6ER

[@hamradiotube]

@@gregmihran8616 no way. I was on the ATAS. Couldn’t have been my end.

[@royanderson7021]

Thanks for the quick review! At $65, it seems like a good deal at face value. I found the instructions about as clear as mud. I'm a relatively new Technician (< 1 yr) and am thinking this is a good addition to my POTA gear. Questions: Do I need a counter poise? Instructions mention counter poise but unclear if needed or not. Do I need a choke on the coax like other EFHW's? Would really appreciate a follow-up video on actual performance in the field. Enjoy your videos. Learning a lot! Thanks!

[@hamradiotube]

Once you know a little more about antennas it'll make more sense. Don't worry. We all start at the beginning. Typically you shouldn't need a counterpoise. I have never found the need to use one. Your coax will usually act as the counterpoise. As far as a choke, it depends. It's not a bad practice to just always use one, but I'd say I use one maybe 50% of the time at most when out in the field. I will most certainly be doing an on air test as soon as it's not raining here. Believe me I want to get it on the air!

[@HAMRADIODUDE]

Nice results. I agree, there's a lot of different experimenting. The other day for example, I went out to a beach to operate radio. Typically my end fed halfway visit a sloper configuration at about 3 ft off the ground at its lowest point. But at the beach I was only about a foot off the ground. Using the switch really helped get better standing wave ratio for the bands I worked. That was nice instead of having to try to add wire or remove wire.

[@vicmiller7191]

so about 65 feet of wire, which is about what most endfeds need. Looks like a nice little portable antenna. Thanks for the review. 73 Vic de KE8JWE

[@hamradiotube]

You bet

[@Philip-KA4KOE]

N9SAB makes a great EFRW. Great video

[@hamradiotube]

I've heard good things but never used one.

[@Philip-KA4KOE]

​@@hamradiotube OK. How much power is rated for the Xtenna?

[@jasonk7jwn229]

Mike, Video looks crispy sharp. Did you get a new camera? Great demonstration. 💥👍 73 amigo.

[@hamradiotube]

Nope. Same old iPhone I've been using but thanks.

[@FrankTheTank]

What are some of the different use cases of switch from a 49:1 to 56:1 or 64:1?

[@PendejoRyan]

I fiddled with mine and it changed the SWR changed slightly with each configuration. I guess it all depends on which one gives you the best SWR? I may be wrong though. In fact, I'm probably wrong.

[@PendejoRyan]

On a side note, I ran 100w into it for an hour or so with zero issues

[@hamradiotube]

If you actually watch the video Frank, you would see what it does.

[@timmanwell2538]

Great vid, as always, Mike. So in the end, what length of wire did you end up with??? 73, Tim

[@hamradiotube]

You didn't watch the video. Otherwise you would know.

[@MattPatterson1411]

Found this antenna on Etsy the other day purely by accident. Thought it was a neat idea so I picked one up. Haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. The idea that it’s a PackTenna rip off is coincidental at best. I mean if you mount anything on a similar type wire winder it’s gonna look like a PackTenna.

[@hamradiotube]

Yeah but show me an antenna that had that design before PackTenna.

[@MattPatterson1411]

@@hamradiotube valid point

[@longtonailtrdwtr8715]

How is 1.59 SWR on one band considered bad but on 10m 1.74 is not terrible? Does one band require a better SWR than another? I just operate under the notion that anything below 1.7 is G2G. Am I wrong?

[@K4TMO]

Thanks for the great review. What is the portable mast you’re using in the video? Would it also be strong enought as a portable pole for a OCF dipole and alike?

[@hamradiotube]

This is the PackTenna 10 meter telescopic mast. And honestly it would depend on how heavy the dipole is. So maybe, but probably not. Not the top section at least. You'd probably need to connect the antenna and then collapse the top section or two back down, which I'm not a fan of doing. TN07 makes a great 32 foot mast I just did a video on that would probably be better for what you're doing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5W8qHWDdsaDi5o Or check out Spiderbeams. They have really strong masts as well.

[@peterdekeles.]

great video. I know you said he was out of stock. Will you put link in once he has a supply?

[@hamradiotube]

www.etsy.com/shop/XTennaAntennas?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1452354877

[@dougdunlap5889]

good stuff

[@davidryeburn6446]

Does this thing have a choke anywhere along the coax line? The reason I ask is that (a) the fact that the antenna wound up being a bit shorter than expected despite the SWR dip being at the very low end of 40 m, and (b) the relative independence of SWR on which of the three iimpedance ratios you chose, and (c) the way the SWR flattens out at a relatively low value instead of continuing to rise as you go further and further off resonance in the higher frequency direction, all make me suspicious that something is very lossy here. Lossy antennas can have beautiful SWR but they don't radiate that well. If as I suspect there is no choke, it would be interesting if you added one, and re-did your measurments. Will the antenna still want to be so short? Will it still not care all that much which impedance ratio you use (it ought to need higher ratios at lower frequencies and lower ratios at higher frequencies since harmonic resonances usually have lower impedances at the high voltage/low current ends than the fundamental resonance)? Will it still flatten out the SWR curve once it gets up to 3:1 or more the way it did? I predict it's going to make QUITE a difference, but please do the experiment and let us know. Of course there could be another source of loss. Three that I can think of are (a) a poor quality toroid, (b) poor choice of wire to wind the toroid, perhaps too small a gauge, and (c) lossy capacitor across the low impedance winding of the matching transformer (if such a capacitor is being used). David VE7EZM and AF7BZ

[@hamradiotube]

Nope. But I very rarely use a choke on any of my other EFHW's like the PackTenna and my PackTenna is as perfectly tuned as one could ask. I'll be curious to see what happens with a choke in line. I'll try it out when I do an on air test with this antenna and if there's anything worth reporting, I'll include it in the video.

[@Sean-AI7EQ]

Could you linear load the end of the EFHW to get 40m where you like and see if 10m tunes better?

[@ShelliG]

As a newbie - how DID you install it - we only see part of it.

[@ChrisBeiting]

I have one. It's fairly straightforward. Once you solder the wire on the board you basically hook it up to an antenna analyzer. I swapped out the wire in mine for more flexible wire. Measured out about 72' and then tossed it into a tree. Then ran the analyzer to get the SWR. I kept trimming down the cable until I was as close as 1:1 on 20m as I could get. Took about 45 minutes, and now I have a tuned EFHW that works beautifully on 40/20/10 every time I put it in the air.

[@Trent28888]

The 60W might be because of the slide switch between the taps but how long was ur coax Mike?

[@hamradiotube]

Who knows? This particular run of RG-316 was about 50'

[@ocsrc]

Is an inverted L 66 foot antenna just for 40 meters, or Can you do 80 meters as well ?

[@hamradiotube]

An inverted L is just a way of deploying an antenna. You can do it for whatever band you want. As far as I know it's just a more practical way of setting up an antenna when you start do get down to the longer frequencies like 80 meters. I've done it with my DX Commander at field day.

[@wildbill1]

Cool video mike. I might have to purchase one. I like the adjustable impedance match. Kinda of strange that in his directions he didn’t know the proper wire length to use on a half wave and was giving non resonant lengths

[@hamradiotube]

I thought so too, but fortunately it still worked.

[@full_metal2452]

Cool but isn’t the tuner your are using like 3-$400?

[@hamradiotube]

I'm not using a tuner. I'm using an antenna analyzer to analyze the antenna. But yes, this one is in that ball park.

[@45auto]

Use an $80 NanoVNA. It doesn't change the antenna.

[@232nate]

Thank you for the video. I couldn’t watch the entire video. I saw that antenna and it didn’t make sense to me. Just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. I am a PackTenna fan and I seem to compare everything antenna to the PackTenna.

[@hamradiotube]

PackTenna for the win brother!

[@johnb6084]

I just got one of these antennas. The ripoff is why I bought this one. Mine is resonant on the phone portion from 10-40, 1.1-1.6 with around 63' plus or minus in the 49:1 position. I didn't trim, wrapped the excess on the winder.

[@hamradiotube]

Hmm, that's interesting. I wonder if having the excess wire around the wire is loading it up to some degree?

[@johnb6084]

@K8MRD Idk, thought it was a little short too but just did pota on 20w and worked great.

[@GuntherKen-j8x]

Robinson Carol Taylor Angela Martinez Jose

[@bassangler73]

I agree.....You want a half wave!!!! He is acting like its a long wire

[@johnpawlicki1184]

The switch is on the high voltage side of the transformer. Not a good idea. IMHO

[@paulsengupta971]

I was thinking that. I was wondering what the switch was. As someone says above, maybe that's the power limitation, though personally I tend to limit an FT140-43 to 50W SSB. 240-43 for 100W.

[@hamradiotube]

Well I'll let you know if it blows up when I get it on the air lol! All it's doing is changing where the winds of the toroid are tapped. Just don't touch it when transmitting.

[@royurick]

But every time I try to buy a Packtenna, they are ALWAYS out of stock. So who cares if its a packtenna clone? I cant buy the original anyway because they dont seem to actually make them anymore.

[@CarlaHolmes-c8c]

Martin John Davis Donna Robinson Kenneth

[@hamradiotube]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

[@W4TRI_Ronny]

I can see it's a total rip off but with different features and better performance! :)

[@hamradiotube]

Mmm, I wouldn't say better performance quite yet. I haven't gotten it on the air. Plus, my PackTenna is tuned as perfectly as you could ask for on all the same bands we tested in this video without being resonant at or below the bottom of the bands. I was able to get it resonant in the middle of the bands and it's still great on 10 meters too. There is a very good reason the PackTenna is one of my top 2 favorite antennas.

[@W4TRI_Ronny]

@@hamradiotube Well I've enjoyed mine for a week. Never heard of a Packtenna before but I'm sure they are good too. As for ripping off a design neither is the first to do this.

[@ИсидораАлександрова]

Harris Linda Harris Mary Miller Brian

[@dimakim-n6c]

Jones Shirley Lopez Michelle Martin Dorothy

[@FrankTheTank]

But, wait. HOW long was the antenna. you gave us some make believe believe units, not good ol AMERICAN units.

[@hamradiotube]

Imperial is stupid. Get a metric tape measure. What are our ham radio bands???? They sure as hell ain't in yards.

[@denelson83]

Using non-metric units in ham radio unnecessarily over-complicates the hobby.

[@FinancialYaweli]

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[@kathrynlewinese1171]

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