This is a quick blog, and one which I have done to answer a couple of questions asked of me at this years Hamfest in England.
A couple of people asked if EFHW are efficient and also if they worked OK at my home QTH or was I just selling them because they are popular at the moment. Well I thought I would try to answer that with a few simple videos.
But first some background on my antenna. My EFHW transformer is at about 1.5m above the ground. The wire (2mm copper with 1mm insulation) slope up-to about 8 meters at 45 degrees, then its a flat top to the top of the house. I live in a chalet bungalow . I have no ground rod at the antenna and no counterpoise. The coax is wound around one 240-43,a 240-31 and 240-52 toroids acting as chokes in series just before the transceiver. My background noise is pretty good. This is partly down to my location and the number of chokes and mains suppressors I have. Along with a ground rod just outside my shack. I still get RFI, but it can be managed.
The conditions today are a K of about 3-4 at the time of filming and SFI of 129. Not perfect but OK. So here we go.
Video 1, 1w, OT5A who was calling CQ for ages so I though I would give it a go with 1w. Then another. I had to tune down a bit, sometimes voice processors confuse me a little.
Video 2, 5w OT7J he seemed pretty active took a couple of calls to get through to him.
Video 3, I then went onto a very busy 20m band and tried to jump a pileup on V1YC, no chance. I'll try later today. A very patient contester working an M6 station. Well done and I forgot to write down his call sign, opps IT4??I. Anyway worked with 5w. Then up to 15m on and worked SZ1V.
Earlier in the day I did work a few stations, see below mostly 50-100w. I'm not really a contester but they can be a lot of fun.
