What bands, antennas to get started?

[KB3SVB]

I'm taking my Technician exam tomorrow. However I do plan to move on to the General test soon after.

My question has to do with antenna construction. If I understand it correctly I need to decide what frequencies I'm interested in so I can build the proper length antenna. (I have some room and some trees to work with.) I read here HF is where the most traffic is. I am coming at this from a marine point of view. I want to be able to hear what Herb Hilgenberg has to say on 12359.0 and 8294.0, (which is 24 meter and 36 meter, right?). Not limiting Technician bands, what Ham bands should I go for? Do I need to build I whole bunch of antennas? (This is not a money is no object hobby for me, yet.

[KJ4AUR]

Removed May 07, 2009

[K0RGR]

There are many ways to approach this.

In order to hear Herb, you are actually going to want an antenna that will work well for short-range work. Some kind of horizontal wire antenna, 30-35 feet above ground should work. A trap dipole for 80/40/20 meters should work well enough at receiving on those frequencies.

Another style of antenna is often used by the military and government users:
http://www.bwantennas.com/ama/amaindex.htm

These antennas are very easy to use, and performance will range from fair to lousy depending on your particular situation. I've had good luck with them, but others have not. The antenna does incorporate a 'swamping resistor' opposite the feedpoint, and on some bands, the resistor may be dissipating considerable power.

Another antenna that might perform even better for you if you have the available supports: http://kh2d.net/windom.cfm

[KJ4AUR]

Removed May 07, 2009

[K0RGR]

As I said, some people have lousy results. Mine were decent, but I'm also not a big DXer, and my expectations were different. Mine replaced a G5RV at the same height, and in most cases, worked about as well for what I do. For short-range regional stuff the B+W was usually better than my vertical. For long range stuff, the vertical won hands down. Mine was as close to flat as I could get it, with the center at about 45 feet.

I did see something today I'd never noticed before. Apparently, B+W says that using small-diameter coax is a 'no-no'. I'm pretty sure mine was fed with RG-213, so maybe that's part of the difference, though I can't imagine why it would matter.

There's also a lot of disagreement on the power handling capability of the antenna. That swamping resistor isn't a kilowatt resistor, so some portion of the RF is actually being radiated. I don't know if I ever ran a KW on mine, but I know my dad did, and it didn't harm anything. The resistor did get warm, though (but never hot).

[KJ4AUR]

Removed May 07, 2009

[AI3V]

In My Humble Opinion...

The best band to get you feet wet on HF is 40Meters.

Strong signals to somewhere 24/7

Reasonable size for antennas.

100 Watts is plenty of sauce.

Start with a dipole cut for 40 M (about 66 ft of wire), Feed it with coax, and install the antenna as high up as you can get it, in as straight of a line as you can get it. Adjust the length for minimum indicated VSWR

You can use this antenna to listen anywhere in the HF spectrum.

Worry about other bands, tuners, amps, etc. after you get a hundred or so QSO's

Rege

[NA0AA]

With your current ticket, you have CW HF on 80, 40 and 15 meters, plus CW and phone on 10.

a 40 meter antenna will typically load OK on 15 meters, so that's two bands in one, although with the current state of sunspots, 15 is a bit slow except during contests. This will, we all hope, change soon.

If you need to have resonant antennas, then dipoles are pretty much the simplest to build - a fan dipole for 80 and 40 will also work 15 meters, that's 4 wires and one coax feed line.

Honestly, however, your best bet is to get yourself some antenna books and read up on the various antenna designs and how they work - then you can survey your existing lot and determine what you can realistically fit on your lot.

Most of us find a mix of vertical and horizontal antennas a good idea, but much depends on your space and available antenna supports [trees] or other man made supports as can be devised.

A couple of general tips:

Most antennas work better the higher they are.

There's no such thing as a permanent wire antenna

What works for one QTH may or may not work well for YOUR QTH.

Physically shortened antennas normally have more limited bandwidth

Just because your tuner can match it, does not make it a good antenna.

A dummy load has an SWR of nearly 1:1.

Selah!

[M3NLD]

I've just started up and I am using a kenwood th-47 hand held. I live in the York area in the UK. I wanted to get a new transceiver but someone said it's cheaper to get CB...any idea of how much they cost?

[KE5KTU]

I would not consider getting a C.B. I think you would be happier with a dedicated HF radio. I know 500 dollars (U.S.) is a lot to some, but that is what an Icom 718 (cheapest current production) runs. Of course you can find some used for less, but that will give you a ball park.
Hope this helps.
Jake