I have been using the EH antenna’s for several weeks now through normal QSO’s ,contests and general use.

Even with my home brew capacitors in the full network design the antenna has not been as frequency stable as I would like it to be especially in damp conditions. I went over to the transformer driven design as in the second article and have had more favourable results. I first of all ran all of the antenna’s for 40M, 20M and 17M at ground level with no mast. All of them were fed with RG218 cable with the cable along the ground at RF earth. On 40m I could work the UK but with only 55 signal reports back. On 20M I could work near Europe with 57 reports coming back. I only worked one station on 17M in Germany but we made a contact with 53 reports. I then put the antenna’s up to 2.5 metres in height. The 40 m version gave me reports 1 s point less than my 40 inverted V antenna over the uk in General but was more susceptible to layer height during the day than the inverted V antenna and working stations within 60 miles of me I had no problem working any stations in europe. The 20M antenna gave me 57 to 59 reports across Europe to the middle east similar to my inverted V dipole and gave the overall best performance. The 17M version was similar to the 20 M version I would have liked to work more stations on this band but calling CQ was difficult as most stations do not reply as I am not DX.

The main result was that whoever I called responded no matter where or in what direction. The antenna’s not the co-ax and not the coils radiated RF well and I communicated. The one down side was that the antenna performance dropped off slightly when it was coated with rain water but in dry conditions it was ok. As all antenna’s they would work better the higher they are up in the air and 2.5 metres is

A bit low in height. I think they are a great general purpose Ham antenna with a performance in between a very good mobile antenna and a wire dipole that fits in a very small space and consequently could be a useful tool for all ham radio operators especially CW operators. Its performance at low height levels would be useful for operators carrying one into a holiday situation and wanting to work hf. It would be interesting to see the results for a pair in phase but I have no intention of making multiple arrays.

Brandon S. Jones (G4ISQ)