POLL: What type of antenna do you use?

[ChrisSmolinski]

What do you use as your primary antenna?  I thought it would be interesting to see what folks are using. And it might be useful information for operators, to know what their listeners are using.

Reply to the thread if you need another type of antenna added to the list

[zackers]

I picked "small loop" because it was the closest thing to the loop I actually use. It's a full-wave 40 meter vertical rectangular loop. Dimensions are 12 ft vertical and 58 ft horizontal. It's about 4 feet off the ground. None of the choices actually fit.

If you add a category for it, I'll modify my vote.

[ChrisSmolinski]

I picked "small loop" because it was the closest thing to the loop I actually use. It's a full-wave 40 meter vertical rectangular loop. Dimensions are 12 ft vertical and 58 ft horizontal. It's about 4 feet off the ground. None of the choices actually fit.

If you add a category for it, I'll modify my vote.

Good suggestion! I added full wave loop.

[Kilokat7]

Phased BOGs

[ChrisSmolinski]

Phased BOGs

I added BOG and phased BOG.

I keep meaning to try a BOG or a phased BOG, I hear good things about them.

[Turbo]

My HF Antennas:

WELLBROOK-ALA1530 ACTIVE LOOP
WELLBROOK-ALA1530AL-1 ACTIVE LOOP
WELLBROOK-ALA1530L ACTIVE LOOP
WELLBROOK-ALA330S ACTIVE LOOP

Regards Lino..

[wyzguy]

100' inverted L (random wire) is the usual unless I'm going low (AM broadcast or below) then an LF Engineering L-400B

[Zoidberg]

For the past couplafew years I've mostly been using homebrewed fugly loops made from ordinary cable TV coax.  Fugloop 1 was a little better suited to HF and medium wave skywave, but not quite as directional as I wanted for MW and to null out local noise.  It was best as a passive antenna and seemed to overload my cheapie old Radio Shack antenna amplifier.  It was cheap and easy to make, but not as portable as I wanted.

Fugloop 2 is more directional for MW and nulling out local RFI, okay but not great for HF and, if possible, even fuglier.  It's mostly just a single long hank of TV coax coiled up jussst so, without a tuning cap.  I just fiddled with the coil diameters until it worked and was directional on MW.  It shouldn't work and if I try to describe it, sounds crazy.  I'll hafta photograph and sketch it.  My main goal was to make it cheap, easy to rig up and easy to tote outdoors and hang from a tree or toss on the ground.  Be interesting to see if anyone else can make it work or improve on it without making it more expensive, more complex or needing a tuning cap.

[Nella F.]

I might betray my cover but actually I don't give a krap! My bestes so far antenna for my current qth for pirate catches is a wire attached to the baseboard heater. Don't kid yourselves, Propagation rules! & don't ask me why it works, either. Also it seems to pick up the least amount of local qrm, including rf & computer noise.

[Zoidberg]

That doesn't surprise me at all, Nella.  Occasionally I've had the best reception and least RFI when I hook my compromise ground wire to the hi-z antenna input.  Ya do what ya gotta do for this silly hobby.

[Nella F.]

That doesn't surprise me at all, Nella.  Occasionally I've had the best reception and least RFI when I hook my compromise ground wire to the hi-z antenna input.  Ya do what ya gotta do for this silly hobby.

Thanks. But I gotta ask in all seriousness (showing my lack of expertise for the jargon in this hobbie), what do you mean by "hi-z" antenna input?

[Zoidberg]

Hi-Z = high impedance, Lo-Z = low impedance.

Most tabletop receivers and many portables have high and low impedance antenna inputs.  The low impedance is usually around 50-75 Ohms and is normally fed with some sort of shielded cable or coax to your full wavelength sky loop on the back 40 acres of your gentleman's ranch.  Hi-Z is usually around 300-500 Ohms and is normally fed with a wire hanger or that six foot long piece of extension cord we found in the dumpster outside our trailers.  In radio jargon, Hi-Z also translates to "I'm broke."

Why "Z"?  Radio people are notoriously lazy sots famously industrious citizens whose use of jargon is even more annoying sophisticated than high school kids quoting memes in real life.  I've actually heard hams saying "Hi-Hi" on the radio.  That's even sadder hipper than the Sad Bachelor's mating call, "Git in the kitchen."

Take me. I can't even be bothered to write UTC half the time.  So I fall back on the military "z" for zulu.  So when I write "Wow, smokin' signal from WBNY at 1030z!" do I mean 1,030 Ohms?  Probably, because there's no way I'd be up DXing at 5:30 am.

what do you mean by "hi-z" antenna input?

[federer_11]

Random longwire aerial, 30 metres long

[nl12SDR]

WELLBROOK-ALA1530L ACTIVE LOOP 

[cmradio]

Forgot about this topic. Switched my vote to small loop.

Peace!