DIY Antennas, QRP, SDR & Ham Radio Projects from VU3DXR
The Antenna category collects all of our HF, VHF, and UHF antenna designs in one place — from compact balcony loops to multiband wire antennas and portable verticals. You’ll find step‑by‑step builds for 80 m to 70 cm, including delta loops, trapped dipoles, doublets, magnetic loops, collinears, J‑poles, Moxons, and more, each with practical dimensions and matching options that actually work on the air.
Many designs are optimised for small plots, apartments, and portable operation, with notes on noise behaviour, radiation patterns, SWR results, and tuning tricks. Whether you are chasing DX on 40 m, experimenting on 6 m “magic band,” or improving repeater coverage on 2 m and 70 cm, this section helps you choose and build the right antenna for your station
This guide explains terminated antennas for HF ham radio, which use resistors to absorb reflected energy and maintain stable impedance across wide frequency ranges. It covers designs like Beverage and T2FD antennas, highlighting their broadband performance, directional patterns, and suitability for multiband, low-noise, and space-restricted installations.
This article explains a terminated mini loop antenna designed for small spaces, combining loop geometry with resistive termination to achieve directional reception and reduced noise. It covers construction using wire, a terminating resistor, and a matching transformer, delivering wideband HF performance without a tuner for compact installations.
Amateur Radio – End fed Halfwave antenna – Web resources and links An end-fed half-wave (EFHW) antenna is a type of radio antenna that is a half-wavelength long and has its feed point at one end. This makes it a very simple and compact antenna, and it is often used for portable or temporary applications. […]
A short linear loaded ham radio band HF antenna is a type of antenna that uses linear loading to reduce its physical length. Linear loading is a technique that involves adding parallel conductors to the antenna elements. This increases the antenna’s effective length, allowing it to operate at a shorter physical length. Short linear loaded […]
This 80M Trapped dipole antenna is the work of Nadisha 4S7NR, modified by YC0HLE which results are matched at a frequency of 3,845 MHz. This design will be resonant at a frequency of around 3,250MHz to 3,850MHz. Coil inductance = 67.83 µH, made of email wire diameter = 1 mm, diameter of the cocker = […]
Modified simple horizontal V antenna This antenna is little modified version of antenna designed by Adam 9A4QV for noaa/METEOR Weather sat reception. Adams antenna is based on a very simple linearly polarized dipole, which makes construction almost trivial. I tried his antenna and found that practical difficulties in finding choc block terminals. Chock block terminals are not strong enough […]
The halfwave end fed antenna is an attractive option for many radio amateurs as it is able to provide multiband operation without the use of traps or stubs whilst occupying a minimum amount of space. A broad-band matching network is typically used to transform the high impedance of the EFHW feed point to 50Ω suitable […]
Rothammels Antenna Book For many years, radio amateurs have been using this reference book, which has acquired a firm place in amateur-radio literature as an “antenna cookbook.” Dating back to the fifties, it has developed into a comprehensive reference book for practical use, which has been published in numerous German-language editions. In the interest of […]
1:49 UNUN is a type of transformer that can be used to match an end fed half wave antenna to a 50 ohm coaxial cable. It is made from two stacked FT240-43 cores.
VK4FUQ’s optimised sloper antenna for 3.5MHz. Radiator and counterpoise radial are both one-quarter-wave in length (length in metres = 71.37/(frequency in MHz) or in feet 234/MHz). The radial should be at least 5ft (preferably about 8ft) above ground and immediately underneath the radiator. Good quality insulators are need at the top of the preferably non-conductive […]