HF Antennas

No doubt about it, without a good antenna, no matter how good the receiver, you will not hear much of anything. These links should help even a newcomer feel comfortable about selecting and installing a HF antenna. There's several technical links for the experimenters in us, along with several commercial retailers. Warm up those soldering irons and get busy!

If you're a newcomer or old hat, or anywhere in between, when installing antennas, Safety First.
Make this link a must read. Don't become a statistic!

Commercial Retailers

Active Antennas

• Active SW Whip for Handhelds - MT review
• DX Engineering Active Receive antenna
• LF Engineering H-900 Gainprobe Antenna Review from MT (PDF)
• MFJ1020C Active Antenna review from MT
• North Country Radio Active Antenna
  • Pop Electronics 1997 article on the North Country Active Antenna

Other Manufacturers/Suppliers

• Alpha Delta Communications
• Antennas and More
• Antenna Supermarket
• Barker and Williamson Amateur Products
• Buckmaster 7 Band OCF dipole
• BuxComm Home Page
• Cobra UltraLite
• Durham Radio (Canada)
  • Wire Antennas page
  • Portable/Active antennas
  • Single/Multiband Dipoles and Slopers
  • Amateur Portable antennas
• DWM 'Yo Yo'Antenna Review from MT (PDF)
• Grove SW/MW Antennas
• International Antenna Corporation
• Lowbander.com
  • Look at the bottom of the page
• Miller compact HF Antenna (PDF)
• Miracle Antenna
  • Miracle Whip review from MT
• PAR EF-SWL antenna
  • PAR End Fed Z EF-SWL Antenna review from MT
• Radiowavz
• RadioWorks catalog pages (PDF)
• RF Systems
• SGC Base Station Antennas
• SGC Portable, Mobile and Whip Antennas
• Spi-Ro Manufacturing
• Universal Radio
  • Universal Radio SW/MW Antennas
  • Universal Radio Amateur Antennas
• Wellbrook Communications

MW (AM Band) Rejection Filters

• ICE BCB Filters
• Kiwa Broadcast Band Rejection Filter
• Kiwa Broadcast Band Filter for Longwires
• PAR BCST-HPF Filter
  • PAR AM Broadcast Filter review from MT
• Scanner Master Filters page
• Stridsberg Engineering Filters

Homebrew and Technical

Where to start?

• Antenna Basics
• Antenna Terms and Build a Dipole Antenna - from the MT Website
• Build a Multiband SW antenna (from the Hamuniverse site)
• Definition, History and Building a Random Length antenna - from the MT website
• Getting Started in SWL Listening Part III: Antennas, Accessories and Niche Listening

What about indoors?

• Attic Antennas --Always Surprise Me (John Schriener Jr. N2LK via EHam)
• HF Aerial for High Rise Dwellers via Southgatearc.org
• The Carpet Loop -via Hard Core DX
• The McGyver(tm) special

Technical and construction topics

• A Waterproof Shielded Housing for Active Short Monopole Antennas (PDF)
• Active Antennas KB6RWX
• Amateur 7 Element Yagi calculator
• An Active Ferrite Rod with Remote Tuning (PDF)
• Antenna Lessons from Old Timers (EHam article)
• Antenna Street.com
• Antennex Magazine - Very technical discussions,construction projects and reviews are presented here
• Antentop - Partially in Russian
• Complementary Push Pull Amplifiers for Active Antennas (PDF)
• DIY Antenna Mounting Bracket
• End Fed Half wave wire
• Need a coax attachment to feed a fan dipole? Take a look at the Fan Dipole Attachment designed by chgomonitor
• Feeding a Folded Dipole
• Folded Dipoles
• Grounding Bulkhead with supressors for your scanning station
  • Although the above article mentions a scanning station, this applies to HF, too
• Grounding is Key to Good Reception (Blog article)
• HFLink ALE Antennas (fan dipoles)
• Inverted U antenna
• Joe Carr's Technical Notes - via DXing.com
• Hard Core DX Antennas Page - Technical Discussions, Plans, Hidden Antennas and more
• Reinventing the tape dipole via eHam
• Six Band HF Center-Loaded Off Center Fed Dipole
• The Terminated Tilted Folded Dipole (T2FD)
• The Folded Dipole Antenna
• The NB6Zep Antenna
• W5GI Mystery antenna
• The W5JCK Portable 80m/75m/SWL Helical Antenna Project

MFJ Antenna Talk series

• Basic Collinear Arrays
• Franklin Collinear Arrays
• 3 Element Bobtain Curtain Array
• Thoughts on what to hang and where
• Ultimate Vertical Portable Antenna
• 1/2 Wavelength L Antenna

Indexed Links

• AC6V antenna links
• DX Zone Antennas Catalog
• The Antenna Elmer
• The N4UJW Antenna Projects Design Lab
• W4RNL Antenna Notes
• W8JI.Com Antennas Page

AMANDX Indexed Articles

• AMANDX = Association of Manitoba DXers. Their home page is here
  • Anti Static Devices
  • Beverage Antennas
  • Choosing Wire for an Antenna
  • Dipole Antenna
  • Grounding System
  • Limited Space Antennas
  • Longwire Antennas
  • MFJ 1026 Modifications
  • Pre Built Antenna List
  • Simple Antenna Switch
  • The Great White North Antenna

Magnetic Longwire Baluns (MLBs)

• Doug's Antenna Transformers Page
• Erickson Engineering
• Industrial Communications Engineers - ICE Model 180 LMB
  • Review of the ICE Model 180 LMB via BADX
• Longwire Impedance Matcher- via AMANDX
• M0UKD Magnetic Long Wire UnUn
• Palomar MLB-1
• RF Systems Magnetic Longwire Balun (from the Universal website)
• Wellbrook Universal Magnetic Balun
  • Wellbrook - How to install a Long Wire Balun
• Winradio WR-LWA-0130 Long Wire Antenna Adapter
  • Evaluation of WinRadio LWA-0130 Long Wire Antenna Adapter
• The following articles are courtesy of Hard Core DX:
• Magnetic Longwire Balun - Not Really a Balun
• Magnetic Longwire Balun - A Con or Not?

Reviews

• DXing.Info Equipment Page
• EHam reviews of antennas (Wire,Verticals)
• Strong Signals User Antenna Opinions
• NOTE: Mixed Scanner and HF/MW Loop antennas mentioned here

Yahoo Groups

• Shortwave SWL Antenna

Back to Antennas
Return to HF Military Communications