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 (Indoors)

• Grahn GS5 Active Antennas (in German)
• MFJ 1020C
• A preliminary review of the PK Loop C-LOOP-HDSW6-18
  • A follow up on the PK Loop C-LOOP-HDSW6-18 Antenna
  • eHam review of PKLoop LW antenna

Active Antennas (Outdoor)

• Bonito Antennas page
  • Bonito Boni-Whip (via Universal Radio)
  • NTi Wideband Antennas (via Universal Radio)
• Cross Country Wireless HF Active Antenna
• Dressler Active Antennas sold by Broadband Power Technology
• DX Engineering ARAV4-2P Active Antennas
• MFJ 1024
  • eHam reviews of the MFJ 1024
• Pacific Antenna Active Antenna kit
• RF Systems DX-1 Pro Active Antenna

SWLing.com Aritcles

• How to Properly Install A Mini Whip Antenna In An Noisy Urban Environment
• Bonito Boni Whip review
• Traveling and DXing with the Bonito MegActive MA305 Antenna
• New antenna from Bonito: The MegaDipole MD300DX wideband active dipole
• Test the MegaDipole MD300DX wideband active dipole via a KiwiSDR

Other Manufacturers/Suppliers

• Alpha Delta Communications
• Balun-Designs.com
• Barker and Williamson
• Buckmaster 7 Band OCF dipole
• Chameleon CHA MPAS Lite
• Cobra UltraLite
• DoxyTronics EFHW-728A Signal Slinger
• Godar DXR-1000 AM/SW/FM Antenna
• Ham Radio Fun - Antennas
• HVend .3-30 Mhz SWL antenna
• Lowbander.com
  • Look at the bottom of the page
• MFJ Wire Antennas and related
• Moonraker X1-HF Vertical
• MyAntennas.com
• Palomar Engineers
• Radiowavz
• SGC Base Station Antennas
• SGC Portable, Mobile and Whip Antennas
• Universal Radio SW/MW Antennas
• Universal Radio Amateur Antennas
• Vibroplex PAR EF-SWL Antenna
• WinRadio Antennas

Homebrew and Technical

Where to start?

• What is HAAT?
• What is ERP?
• Antenna Basics
• If you are using a portable and want to add a bit of protection against static electricity, or want to add a crude RF Gain control, see this article for a simple project you can build.

What about indoors?

• Attic Antennas --Always Surprise Me (John Schriener Jr. N2LK via EHam)
• 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 Attic Coaxial Cable Trap Dipole for 10,15,20,30,40 and 80 Meters
• Antenna Lessons from Old Timers (EHam article)
• Antenna Projects of Frank N4SPP
• Beverage Antenna
• Bobtails and Half Squares
• Broadband Butterfly Terminated Dipole (YouTube video)
• The Broomstick Antenna
• Complementary Push Pull Amplifiers for Active Antennas (PDF)
• DIY Antenna Mounting Bracket
• End Fed Half wave wire
• The EWE in the Garden
• 49:1 End Fed Half Wave Antenna 80-10 meters (YouTube video)
• Need a coax attachment to feed a fan dipole? Take a look at the Fan Dipole Attachment designed by chgomonitor
• Feeding a Folded Dipole
• 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)
• Homebrew rotatable ferrite antenna via SWLing.com
• Joe Carr's Technical Notes - via DXing.com
• Hard Core DX Antennas Page - Technical Discussions, Plans, Hidden Antennas and more
• How to Build a Simple Linear Loaded Dipole for low noise SW Listening via SWLing.com
• Magnetic Longwire Balun - Not really a Balun
• Magnetic Longwire Balun - A Con or Not?
• Monitoring Times - All About Antennas
• PA0FRI Technical Information for Hams
• Reinventing the tape dipole via eHam
• Shortened Folded Dipoles via eHam
• Six Band HF Center-Loaded Off Center Fed Dipole
• Stealth Antennas - Amazon Kindle
• The Terminated Tilted Folded Dipole (T2FD)
• The Folded Dipole Antenna
• The Snake Antenna (eHam)
• The Vactrol for MW and LW DXing
• VE7SL -PA0RDT E Probe Antenna - Blog Notes

Indexed Links

• Basic HF Antennas
• DX Zone Antennas Catalog
• The Antenna Elmer
• 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
  • Simple Antenna Switch
  • The Great White North Antenna

Reviews

• DXing.Info Equipment Page
• EHam reviews of antennas (Wire,Verticals)

Mailing Lists/forums

• End Fed Half Wave Antennas (Facebook)

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• Return to HF Military Communications
• Return to Shortwave Radiogram Gateway