A Born Again Miracle Whip

About 20 years ago a Canadian company, based in Quebec, produced a compact QRP antenna called the Miracle Whip. It was a really good piece of engineering that relied on the principle that a short whip has capacitive reactance that can be cancelled by feeding it through an inductive reactance. Remember, resonance occurs when capacitive … Continue reading A Born Again Miracle Whip →

Radio Man Won’t You Come and Fix my Radials?

My humble apologies to the former Canadian folk music band Tanglefoot who came from the general area I live in. I borrowed (and edited) one of their song titles for this post. Just when I thought I had the theory and practice of ground radials down pat, along comes another surprise. After several months of … Continue reading Radio Man Won’t You Come and Fix my Radials? →

What in Heaven’s Name is a Rybakov Antenna?

I love to check out interesting, new antenna designs. The Rybakov isn't actually a new antenna, it has been around for a while; either I just hadn't come across it before or I had passed it over and forgotten about it. So when I read about it recently I just knew I had to find … Continue reading What in Heaven’s Name is a Rybakov Antenna? →

A Directional Antenna With Just One Straight Wire – Crazy?

Being called crazy is a compliment to my ears. It means I am doing something different, something unusual. I strive to be "crazy" every day. It is only by doing crazy stuff that we innovate and discover new ideas and new ways of doing things. Today I decided to do two crazy things. First, I … Continue reading A Directional Antenna With Just One Straight Wire – Crazy? →

A Magic Ground Mobile Antenna

Let me start by confessing; I don't operate HF mobile. So my "mobile" HF antenna is only suitable for stationary "shack-in-a-truck" operations. Driving requires my full attention ... and so does CW operation! I mount one of my two portable vertical antennas on a short aluminum pole which in turn is mounted on the hitch … Continue reading A Magic Ground Mobile Antenna →

Vertical Antenna Redesigned

I have posted before about my DIY vertical antenna. It is a rapid deployment antenna that has served faithfully for several POTA activations. But, recently I came to realize it wasn't meeting my needs for all three ways in which I needed to deploy it. Time for a redesign! My vertical antenna is a centre-loaded … Continue reading Vertical Antenna Redesigned →

“The Other Half”

I have a real problem with using vertical antennas when operating field portable. And I mean quarter-wave vertical antennas. You see they need "the other half"; a ground plane, radials, or counterpoise and without "the other half" they just aren't going to work. So here's the rub (as Shakespeare would undoubtedly have commented had he … Continue reading “The Other Half” →