W3EDP, 160-10 meter portable antenna

[pea]

Hey Guys,

I've been reading and enjoying all your posts about EFHW antennas and was pretty settled on getting one on the air. However, I stumbled across an article about the W3EDP antenna that looked interesting. Been doing a lot of research on it and wanted to mention it here because it maybe something some of you will find interesting.

I haven't built one yet (this week I hope) but it looks very easy to build and supposedly is a good performer. I've included several links below about this antenna, what do you think??

https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/good-results-with-re-worked-w3edp/
http://www.amateurradio.com/160-meter-fun/
http://www.ok1rr.com/index.php/antennas/19-the-w3edp-antenna
http://w2lj.blogspot.com/2012/11/w3edp-passes-its-first-test.html and http://w2lj.blogspot.com/2012/12/w3edp-success-part-2.html
http://www.nc4fb.org/wordpress/w3edp-multi-band-antenna/

Bruce, N9WKE

[gil]

Hello Bruce,

Yep, good antenna I heard. I have built one, just two pieces of wire, but never used it. A good way to get on 80m without 135' of wire.. Still, 83' is not easy to shoot up a tree branch.. Probably would have to be sloped. You do need a tuner though. The PAR end-feds I use (I have three) do not require a tuner, though I use one on the "trail-friendly" 10/20/40m wire..

Gil.

[Lamewolf]

Hello Bruce,

Yep, good antenna I heard. I have built one, just two pieces of wire, but never used it. A good way to get on 80m without 135' of wire.. Still, 83' is not easy to shoot up a tree branch.. Probably would have to be sloped. You do need a tuner though. The PAR end-feds I use (I have three) do not require a tuner, though I use one on the "trail-friendly" 10/20/40m wire..

Gil.

You can get on the air on 80 meters with two 67' wires - one setup as a sloper, inverted L, inverted V, vertical etc and the other laid out on the ground as a counterpoise.  Adjust the length of the radiator to get the best swr or use a tuner - works great and its simple !  Oh yeah, the counterpoise doesn't have to run in a straight line either.  The radiator connects to the center of the coax and the counterpoise connects to the coax shield.  Basically you are building a center fed dipole, just deploying it differently.  I have the same setup for my little MFJ 40 meter Cub with a 8' run of RG174 coax to connect it to the radio.  If its length is right, no tuner is needed.  Mine seems to run about 1.2:1 swr no matter how I have it deployed - just get as much of the radiator vertical as possible and it will work.