HF antenna stealth dipoles for QRP, portable or home QTH

I agree. During dxpedition to Lord Howe Island VK9HR the biggest surprise antenna was a 80m full size dipole we made on the spot from a spool of insulated wire and a plastic shampoo bottle for the center insulator plus electrical tape.
No Balun just a current choke by coiling the coax.

We put it up fairly high in the pine trees in a open field and the signals where 59+ into Europe and the USA following the gray line propagation through the entire evening and morning on 75M SSB.

John VK3YP / VK3JHA

 

Here is a conversation piece,, ugly i know but it works

 

100W max

 

Live in a condo so my homebuilt 1/2 wave 20m dipole that I use with 100W is in the attic. Back when conditions were okay got every US county and over 270 DXCC on sideband with it. It cost $3. So you can indeed do a lot with a little. I've heard of creative people slipping good radiators into flagpoles and rain gutters too.

 

A plastic ice scraper works well for the centre of a dipole, just drill a couple of holes in them, or hold a nail with pair of pliers and heat it up to make the holes, or an old soldering iron. You can use bolts and wingnuts, or just run the wires through the holes. You can make a choke by winding a few turns of the coax around the handle, and zip tie it in place, or use electric tape. Make several and write on the clear part with a magic marker what band each one is for. Throw those in the back of the car with a hank or two of paracord, and you are all set!

73 and All the Best!

DE W8LV Bill

 

Very good point, And many of us do just that. These are so simple anyone could do it. IF they want to, but some people i guess just dont want to mess with doing it.......

 

They sells some nice Chinese-made versions of these for a pretty good price, under the Windcamp name. They are sold on Aliexpress, and probably Ebay.

I have not purchased one, but I have bought a few "B Delta 5IK" baluns from there, and had good luck.

 

Hi from Ireland, I can confirm simplicity works. I have simple dipole (runs NS) for 12m just under ridge tile at one end of loft (attic in US?) in bungalow aprox 15 ft up which got me (not much on 12 now) WWV on 15 Mhz and ZD7VC St Helina earlier in March this year. Rx is SDR (TV dongle into MacBook). Plenty more wires up there and 10KV local distribution in field next door so polar diagram is more a circle then anything else!
I have same, but each end 10ft hangs down, for 20m at other end of loft. This gets me into east coast US and down to S Carolina (but you can use 10KW can't you!!!!!). I also heard very weak VE reply to an Italian CQ call so when conditions are OK, and the grey line is in the right place, things can be interesting.
Currently the callsign is Irish SWL, I want to pass the CW exam to get a two letter callsign instead of a three letter one, oneupmanship I couldn't resist! I want to try CW as its more Km/Kw and some digital modes in due course.
Best wishes for the new year. john m EI1706

 

BNC Female to Dual Banana Female Oscilloscope Test connector for center insulator, some 18 gauge wire, 2 insulators for each leg of the dipole. 234/operating freq for each leg (feet). You will have a portable dipole for you go kit! I have been making dipoles like this for years for portable and home use and they will handle 100 watts with no problems. The pic of the dipole looks like he is using a Oscilloscope test connector with some heat shrink over it?
Just like N4NSS make your own antennas!
By the way you can cut several wires to proper length for bands and then mark them, unscrew the banana jack's on the Oscilloscope test connector to change the freq. The whole package will be very small for portable or go kit's. If installed as inverted vee antenna the length of the wire will be shorter then a standard dipole!
The price of DIY will save you a lot of money!
You can also change the antenna type, 1/4 wave vertical, off center fed dipole, vertical dipole, loop antenna, plug 2 BNC Male and Female Oscilloscope Test connectors together and you can feed with open line.