Engineering a Compact 160m Dipole (Can It Get Smaller?)
Today I’m prepping my compact 160m dipole project. I start by spray-painting a few fibreglass poles, then discuss some ideas for making low-band antennas smaller – from dipoles, linear loading, horseshoe shapes and even loops.
Along the way I fire up the modelling software to see some quick far-field plots and test how these designs might actually work in practice.
If you’re curious about compact solutions for 160m (or just enjoy a bit of antenna waffle), this one’s for you!
The Shock-Cord Vertical Antenna Guying Experiment (It Works!)
I’ve been experimenting with guying on my 18m fibreglass mast – and I’ve added 3 x 1m lengths of 12mm (1/2 inch) heavy shock-cord to the top guys. The result? Instead of the mast top shuddering in the wind, it’s now smooth and controlled.
In this video, I show you how I did it, why it works, and what I’m planning next for the station. If you’ve ever wondered whether shock-cord can tame verticals, this is for you!
My Biggest Antenna - Build and Test the Signature 18m (Directors Cut - 4k)
This is my biggest DX Commander antenna and needs careful planning and execution to make sure this goes up first time without a hitch. But the rewards are big! Enjoy the fun – and the mistakes.
This build uses this cut chart:
80m – 21.23m (For 3.8m and above, use 20.75m)
60m – 13.02m
40m – 9.77m (USA / Region 2 – use 9.7m)
30m – 6.88m
20m – 4.87m
17m – 3.86m
NOTE: 15m, 12m and 10m are not guaranteed – although your ATU will easily tune them – same with 6m band.
Although I happened to win my chosen IOTA Contest Category (Woo-Hoo!), the real purpose of this video is to thank those "behind-the-scenes" folks who collate the contest logs and then manage to score the whole event inside 6-weeks. Reading between the lines, there’s probably a ton of errors that creep into these logs with people claiming the wrong category and mixing-and-matching corrupt ADIF files etc. By the sound of it, many of these are probably fixed "by-hand" until eventually, when all the logs can be machine readable, a big process somewhere is finally given the task of collating eveything and all the different categories; multi ops, single ops, 12 hours, 24 hours, assisted, non-assisted, island stations, world-stations – and more into order. So house-points and gold-stars all around. Thank you to the invisible team behind the scenes. 73, Callum M0MCX (Club Call M0XXT).
This time, I went to the Telford Rally. I ran a TS-590SG and a DX Commander Antenna from the car and just had a chill-time, chatting and reminiscing with folks. See what you think! Callum.
PS – Telford and District Amateur Radio Society (TDARS) have a website: https://tdars.org.uk/
The Infamous Cold War British Army 9x9 Radio Command Tent
The design of the 9×9 Command Tent is (in my opinion) a work of art – and it fits on the back of the original Land Rover Defender. Flaps down. Enjoy.
I found the instructions! https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a74ef8640f0b65c0e845b01/20150319-FOI2015_02935_tent_enclosure.pdf
In this video I dive into 20-metre band (and above) and why it behaves so differently to 40m. We recap the D-layer “sponge,” explore how the F-layer splits into F1 and F2 under sunlight, and talk about take-off angles, hop lengths and long-haul DX. With graphs, a few invented words like “jigglification,” and plenty of plain English, this is a look into how 20 m propagation really works — and why it can be both magical and maddening at the same time!
(Warning: contains maths, PDFs, and raw data files. Proceed only if heavily caffeinated.)
📚 ARRL Antenna Book – Supplemental Files (23rd Edition)
https://www.arrl.org/arrl-antenna-book-23rd-edition-supplemental-files
📄 Installation Summary (PDF) – explains where the HFTA statistical elevation-angle files live
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Antenna%20Book%20Supplemental%20Files/23rd%20Edition/Antenna%20Book%20-%2023rd%20Edition%20-%20CD-ROM%20Installation%20Summary.pdf
📊 HFTA Documentation (PDF) – dense but explains how to interpret the elevation-angle distributions
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Antenna%20Book%20Supplemental%20Files/23rd%20Edition/HFTA.pdf
🌐 VOACAP Online (Point-to-Point Propagation) – generate your own AoA tables and predictions
http://www.voacap.com/p2p/
📚 VOACAP Technical Docs – everything you never wanted to know
http://www.voacap.com/documents.html
00:00 Intro
00:20 Recap on D Layer
00:40 The F Layer
02:06 Take-Off Angles
03:07 Long Haul DX
06:39 Take-Off Angle Chart
09:03 What happens at night?
10:26 WSPR
11:49 Why Oceans Assist
12:19 Long Path to VK / ZL
13:31 When F1 and F2 Combine
15:23 Wrap-Up Conclusion
