Top Prepper HF Ham Radio Antenna

Someone else with a lack of understanding. If it's non resonant then it is NOT an end fed HALF WAVE antenna, it's just a random length of wire.

I wasn't sure what to get, but I finally decided on the Chameleon Emcomm II because it seemed to be very versatile, looked to be made with quality materials, and had great reviews online. I haven't been able to try it out yet, but from what I've seen in this video and others it seems I made a good choice and I think it will be an all around good antenna for just about any type of operating on any band, and will be great for a portable set up. I also have some braided copper deep sea fishing line that will be awesome for ground radials to use as a counterpoise. I see a lot of people talking about end fed half waves lately, and seems people either love them or hate them. If it works half as good as I believe it will based on my research, I'll be pretty happy. Especially if I can do most of the HF bands with my internal tuner, but I really won't mind it I need an external tuner as well since a good manual tuner is good to have it something happens to your regular antenna you normally use, with a good manual tuner you can tune just about anything for use on most bands. Anyways, the video was very informative and helped confirm a few things I was unsure of. I feel like I made a good choice with the Emcomm II. Thank you for taking the time to make this video.

How do you set the swr

Thank you for a great video!

pretty good presentation, but you forgot to mention the active broadband remote tuners like the Yaesu FC-40 or the mAT-40 (Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom). They''re al little pricey, but they work so well. In Air Force TacComm (1980) we used the AN/URC110 with a remote tuner and could cover all the frequencies dictated by USAFE. There is no set wire length required so there is no trimming to adjust into or out of resonant domains; just throw the wire over tree and radiate. Perfect for prepping.

One antenna? A vertical with a coil and tape measure radials.. Something like wolf river. Packs up real small if you have to go too.

A friendly note, only three countires in the world are using the Imperial System. So if you think that your video maybe could intererest Hams not living in Myanmar, Liberia or the US it would be kind of you to also include Metric measurements.

Cha Emcomm II v2 as of 30June2023 at DX is $160

I have had an Emcomm II for several years and it works great. That is till the day it fell 25 feet smashing the toroids, operator error is all say on that point. Chameleon sold me the needed repair parts and I repaired the antenna. It's now back up and working great. Chameleon tech support was awesome and the speaks volumes for me.

Wow lots to unpack there for a new Prepper. Thanks. What do you think about the JPC-12? I was recommended this antenna as a good starter. It ranges from 40-6m, as a Prepper is it recommended to get an antenna that covers 80 and 160m?

If you are going to use a 40 meter antenna to try to match 160 meters to it you're going to have to have a substantial antenna tuner!!

Good vide lots of nolegy 4 new and old hams

Very good

The fact you are looking for off the shelf as a “prepper” shows you don’t want to make what you need, the answer is a roll of wire, is the only thing you need the math you should already understand.

Awesome video, well done!

Best explanation I’ve seen. Thank you!

Excellent video. Thank you!

I want to see how you use a EFHW antanna moble!

Technically the non-resonant antennas are not EFHW - Endfed Halfwave, but random wire. EFHW will have 49:1-64:1 unun. Random wire will have 9:1 unun. The 4:1 and 5:1 unun are for OFCD. The 4:1 unun is for traditional feedpoint 1/3rd from one end, such as "coax fed Windom" / OCFD. The 5:1 like Chameleon is fed closer to 25% from one end.

Folding your counterpoise wire at lower HF is shortening your counterpoise wire. You can verify by placing a winder on the free end and winding up the free end to approximately match the length.

At 80m the antenna wire will couple with parallel wire elements space 18" apart and electrically appear as on large conductor. Larger conductors broaden the Q of the antenna.

There are homebrew recipies for 75m/80m antennas with spreaders between parallel conductors to broaden bandwidth.

What are your thoughts on a reverse sloping wire? Would it change anything? What I had in mind was setting up under the shade of a tree with the box and coax pulled up the tree and the wire sloping down and out from the tree and staked with the end lower.

NVIS for 40m & 80. Hmmm...you do know 20m exists, right?

How would you rate the EFHW compared against a magnetic loop? Great presentation.

Great learning here and more than that, it promotes and furthers the hobby. The ARRL handbook couldn't have given a better lesson. Nicely done!

Thanks for the detailed video. I have been using the MyAntenna EFHW80-10 for a few years now. Outstanding antenna! The transformer is about 8ft up and runs 133 ft across the property West to East to about 25ft. I have used FT8 @ 80 watts to contact east Africa and numerous EU stations. I rarely run more than 25 watts on digital tho. Also used JS8Call to contact a buddy in Sacramento CA @ 5 watts. I'm in Eastern ID. Tnx agn. WB6TIS

I would like to offer one piece of constructive criticiso them and that is the noises from your swallowing and other unintended noises and distracting and gross to ppl sensitive to that kind of thing. Maybe if you put the microphone a few inches farther away it would help. For me its probably worse because i have ADD and miss what you say right after and then have to rewind and then i have to hear it again.
I did like the video other than that.
I really hope this does not offend you because that is not my intention. The last time i told someone they flipped out a little and said they don't care if ppl have a problem with his videos. I was kinda surprised because i would think if you spend the time to record and edit a video you would want to put out the best you can especially if the solution is easy and free

Great video lesson. Fact-packed and certainly NOT boring! Had to rewind a couple of times to catch certain concepts, and I'm fairly experienced HAM and Prepper. Please keep up the good work and thank for your clear explaination and good drawings.

Clearly explained and well thought-out sir. I bought the CHAMELEON EMCOMM II QRP Limited Edition works great for my needs.

I built an EFHW antenna from the ARRL kit last December, just haven't gotten around to testing it yet. I hope to try it out on Field Day. This video helps. Thanks!

Wow terrific job thanks 73

Very educational thank you

I have a MFJ -949E manual tuner. It has the normal manual tuner, power and SWR meter, 2 outputs for 2 antennas, and it has a low power dummy load, plus it has a I think it is a 9:1 with balanced output. It also had bypass the tuner, to use my tuner in my IC7300 with 2 antennas. Meter does peek or Average, 30w and 300w range on the meter. That gives me almost anything I will need. Cost much less that getting all that in one at a time. Just something to look at. This should do almost everything in one box! It sets on top of my IC7300, to the back not to cover the speaker. 73 W4DES

You talked about the EFHW antenna cost! ARRL has kits for around $50.If they are like me they will screw up winding the transformer and need to order new wire. I must add this point. I got 3 different kits. I think they all use the same size wire for making the transformer. I think it is CLASSIFIED INFORMATION that size of wire! None of the paperwork that comes with the kits tells what size that wire is. Some don't tell how to wind the transformer, just send some wire and some kind of Toroid core, some tell what it is some don't. But get a kit! Screw it up once or twice. Order what you think the ware is online, then order the next size, because ordered the wrong on the first time. It will cost less that many of the ones that you get all made up. But YOU LEARNED something. My next one is going to be one I make myself. Box from local, Home Depot has a lot of differant sizes and shapes. 2 - FT240-43, and some 18 or 14 gauge wire. We learn best from our mistakes! I have made a lot of them so I must be SMART! But mostly just a SMART A! But the kits cost less, and we learn from doing! Pay less and learn!

Great info, explained and broken down perfectly for preppers new to HF radio... Keep it up!

Very educational...thanks.

You can get some success, more than from indoor applications, are routing a single piece of wire like hardware store #14 or smaller plastic insulated , from jammed into the socket antenna socket on the back of your radio out under the sage of a window and along the underside of the eve I hope your house---- the longer the wire is the better, try to make it at least 30 or 40 feet long and the straight line--- the main point is always to turn on the antenna tuner on your radio front panel, if it has such aYou can get some success, more than from indoor applications, are routing a single piece of wire like hardware store #14 or smaller plastic insulated , from jammed into the socket antenna socket on the back of your radio out under the sage of a window and along the underside of the eve I hope your house---- the longer the wire is the better, try to make it at least 30 or 40 feet long and the straight line--- the main point is always to turn on the antenna tuner on your radio front panel, if it has such a or button period just run your radio with the antenna tuner always turned on.

This was a great video. Thank you for sharing this with us. I want to do QRP SOTA and I’ve been looking at using the end-fed half wave resonant antenna to cover 40-10 meters.

Lookin for a backpack antenna form my HYS 25Watt Super Long Range Handheld 16Channel 400-480Mhz UHF. Will be used on channel 13 at a freq of 421.995. What would you recommend. Looking for range in east Texas.

Love the videos!! I'm just getting into amateur radio and it's a big help.

Darned excellent video. Well done. Got to get some wire going here.......

This would work on an HR?

I'm a new ham so i have a lot to learn
Many many thanks for sharing
CR7BDO / 73

Awesome video. Very good content and well presented.

Great video. I have the Chameleon Ecomm II and it works great. I loved your explanation for how to adjust the setup to take advantage of more ground-wave or longer distances. 73 W1UTE

Awesome video, thank you for putting it together.

Awesome video, I’m wondering if you can help me out after watching your video I purchased a CHA EMCOMM II QRP antenna I do not have a hf radio yet only have my tech license so far but I will be trying to use it to listen on shortwave radio and ham bands do I need a counterpoise and grounding for only receiving.

Good info. Cleared up some items and more questions on others. Time to hit the 📚. I do have one question for now. If the station I want to talk to is SW of me, should my antenna be parallel to that station or perpendicular to ideal? Thanks.