As published in antennex Dec. 2001
The 40 Meters band stealth vertical antenna by K7ZB

“You’re 30dB over 9 here…” So goes the consistently fine signal reports received from around the USA and beyond – on 40 meters at the peak of Sun Spot Cycle 23. The most common antenna used in ham radio mounted over poor desert soil conductivity still performs beautifully!

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After 20+ years, a new Ham Fest will take place in Florence this year.
Compendio Fiere, one of the most active hamfests managing company, has established the FIERA DELL’ELETTRONICA COMPUTER E TELEFONIA in Firenze.

This is mainly a Computer Electronics and Phone exposition, where also amateur radio will be present with six national ham radio dealers. This event will represent an interesting opportunity to promote ham radio to the many young people  that will surely attend the hamfest, even if with a different goals.

The location of the hamfest, is in the Florence center in a dismissed railway station named “Stazione Leopolda”. Driving direction can be found via this link, but I suggest to use the Firenze SMN Railway Station and arrive by train. Car parking in Florence is very difficult, particularly during the week-ends. I suggest to use the Fortezza da Basso or Railway Station car Parkings. Feel free to write me if you need assistance.

[tags]firenze,ham radio,hamfest,florence[/tags]

Original article by K7ZB

Results 

The simple 15′ vertical antenna shown mounted on the railing of our second floor deck has produced almost 200 countries worked around the world… VQ9’s in Chagos and 3B8’s on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, TX0DX on Chesterfield Reef, VK0MM on Macquarie Island in the Antarctic region, BQ9P on Pratas Island off Taiwan, ZM7ZB on Chatham Island in the South Pacific along with FO0AAA on Clipperton, 9M0OO on Spratly Island in the South China Sea, JT1CO in Mongolia and on and on. What I hear, I can usually work with this little wonder and the small size and profile make it feasible for use in deed restricted neighborhoods.

A radio amateur friend and antenna designer came up with a simple design for a 10 meter vertical, which another friend and I modified to make work for the 14, 18, 21, 24 and 28 MHz ham bands. Its performance surpised us, and I’ll share it with you, in case you too are looking for a simple, inexpensive DX antenna that really performs well.

Main Antenna Concept 

The basic concept is to put up a piece of aluminum tubing with a telescopic section held by a small hose clamp to adjust the height. By attaching the center conductor of a coax feedline to the tubing, and the shield of the coax to a couple of radials from the base of the tubing you can load the vertical across quite a broad range of frequencies.

Of course, with a vertical element of approximately 15′ this is a non-resonant antenna for the 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meter bands. I chose this length on purpose to allow the system to be tuned to resonance with an antenna runer.

Tuning

Since the SWR in an antenna system of this type will be relatively high, an antenna tuner unit will definitely be required. You may need an external ATU if the one in your transceiver can’t handle the impedance mismatches involved. Here at K7ZB, I drive my TS570 (which has a built-in ATU) thru the amplifier, which then drives a high power ATU to the antenna. I put the SWR/Power meter between the amplifier and ATU to ensure a good match for the amp, and in cases where I run barefoot without the amp, I can still use the ATU to assist the transceiver’s ATU in ensuring a good match.

In this way, everything is matched for maximum power output: from the transceiver to the amp, and amp to the antenna. And, even though the SWR’s are high at the feedline and the antenna, it doesn’t matter because the system is matched with the ATU.

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