Amateur Radio Stack Exchange
Amateur Radio Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [antenna-system]

The system composed of an antenna and a feed line, and possibly also an RF ground connection, antenna tuner, balun, phasing device, et cetera.

145 questions
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How does the signal know where the cable ends and the antenna starts?

I know very little about antennas. I know, that for a certain frequency the antenna needs a certain lengths for good sending/receiving conditions. Often the antenna is at the end of a cable. Why doesn't the length of the cable count in addition to…
flux
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What is an antenna tuner? Why bother with resonant antennas in the first place?

There are a lot of antenna tuners on the market that have various capabilities in terms of how they can allow random radiators to work with our transceivers. What exactly do they do? My understanding is that they can neutralize the imbalance…
SDsolar
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Share antenna between receiver and transceiver?

I recently put up a fan dipole for 80/40/20/10. I'm looking for a way to share this antenna with a receive-only SDR and my shack transceiver. Obviously I can just switch this antenna between the two manually, but I was hoping there was a way to have…
s3c
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While backpacking, is it worth mounting the antenna to the backpack frame (above my head)?

I am planning a trip with a large group in 6 weeks. We will be spread out in small groups on a trail in a mostly desert plateau landscape perhaps 5 miles apart, but mostly in a straight line. I'm new to amateur radio, but I have been studying and I…
NL - Apologize to Monica
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Does Coax Limit the Maximum SWR a Transmitter 'Sees'?

A recent discussion about SWR led to the assertion that a length of coax cable will ultimately limit the SWR to which the transmitter will be exposed. By experimenting with an SWR calculation tool like TLDetails, there appears to be a basis for this…
Glenn W9IQ
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Stealth HF station setup advice

I need some advice on setting up my first HF station in a somewhat restricted townhouse community. If I had a detached house with a backyard I’d probably already have everything setup. But with this townhouse I keep second guessing what to…
ifletch
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Can I have multiple inverted-vee antenna fed by a single coax?

A friend who recently received his call is planning to setup an inverted-vee for 40/20m bands. Our take is the signal will take the path of least impedance into the correct length antenna wire. Something like the image attached; it depicts two wires…
VU2NHW
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Phasing harness for antenna array

I understand that certain antenna designs (particularly phased arrays) require feeding each radiating element with a certain number of degrees of phase separation in order to achieve a desired radiation pattern or beamwidth. I found this 2-meter…
Craig
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What does a lightning bolt symbol next to an antenna connector mean?

On the back of my Yaesu FT-897, next to each of the antenna connectors, there are lightning-bolt-ish symbols. What do these mean, and is there something I ought to be doing because of that? I have not found any description of a meaning for these…
Kevin Reid AG6YO
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How did hams manage to tune their antennas before VSWR meters?

In the early 20th century --back when the hobby was still new-- before VSWR meters and antenna analyzers were invented, how did radio operators know whether they were tuned for maximum power out? This is not asking about antenna tuner design or…
Mike Waters
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Attic Dipole - Impact of Ethernet over CAT5/6

I've been thinking about putting 20m and 10m dipoles up in my attic (HOA), but I also intend to soon put some Ethernet cable to a WAP (with PoE) through the attic. I was intending to feed this with CAT5e cable because I have lots of it and it's…
William
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Connect two receiving antennas to the same radio

I have built a 1090 MHz ADS-B antenna roughly following some video instructions. It appears to work reasonably. However, because of how it is placed, it captures signals for more or less a half of the sky. So I would like to build another and put it…
Giovanni Mascellani
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What are some ways to ground a transmitter+antenna in an enclosed attic?

If I want to minimize "RF in the shack" and lightning hazard, what some good ways to ground a transmitter and indoor antenna in a top floor room or attic with no exterior access? (say a multi-story wood-framed building with large non-opening glass…
hotpaw2
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Use a TV coax and balun for a poor-man's OCFD?

Can I use TV coax and a cheap TV balun to build a poor-man's OCFD? Marginal performance is acceptable if it saves money. If I could listen to 10% of transmitters within a 100 mile radius that would be acceptable. And as for the coax length, probably…
SlowBro
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Antenna for a cramped attic

Brand new Ham. I bought a cheapo UV5 right before I got my call sign. I want to set up a decent 2m/70cm station for starters and I realize that a better radio is important but wanted to knock out the antenna situation first. I live in HOA hell so no…
ThaKidd KG5ORD
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