My new vertical(!)

CB AntennaWith a feeling of “if you build it, they will come”, I installed a CB style antenna for the 10m band yesterday evening. I needed to shorten it about half a meter for it to work but I noticed that at 12 feet above the ground, it tunes with a low SWR on both 12m and 10m, although it’s not so good around the 27MHz slot- so it’s not exactly broadband. I was also surprised on the 15m band as it presented less than 2:1 in my shack. Red-herring.. it may present a low SWR, however it’s just a crap aerial on that band. The hobby of designing low SWR antennas goes out the window with the dummy loads.

Anyway, why the hell am I writing this? It’s this; I want to know how to feed a half-wave vertical. Why don’t I need radials? I have a 10m fishing pole and I’ll make one for the 20m band and work it all out myself. I know there’s a coil somewhere..

Oh! .. and in the making of this article, I captured a picture of a fly whilst taking a picture of an antenna. See it here: https://www.m0mcx.co.uk/gallery/picture.php?/692/category/67 

Where’s that Glenlivet?