An excellent antenna 📡 project with great results 👍. A number of years ago myself and another local HAM participated in the “Strange Antenna Challenge” over a few years. First year was with three canoes 🛶🛶🛶 on 1 meter high saw horses, the next year was paper backed aluminum foil duct tape hanging 10 meters up in a tree, the last year was with flexible bathroom vent hose as a vertical and roofing valley tin as the counterpoise. We were not only able to make a number of “stateside” contacts, but also work a few DX stations with all three 😃📡. What we proved to ourselves was, if it’s metal, and you can tune it, it’s an antenna 😉👍. 73 de Dan WD4DB

Incredible Paul - nice work!

Congratulations!! That's amazing.

It works well! I'm pleased for your Paul. Thanks for sharing the idea.

A great idea Paul. The thing I like is the antenna reels in without tangling.

I ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR VIDEO'S, THANKS GREAT JOB.

a great series thanks and im glad it worked for you.

thats really cool that you can connect to so many people using a tape measure :)

Great shortwave antenna! Thanks for sharing! I have made two EFHW with wire and have tuning issues with the higher bands as well. You did well with that tape measure!

Beautiful !

Спасибо, Пол! Очень красивые виды словацкой природы и прекрасный тест радиоаппаратуры!

exciting Paul it's exactly as if we were there! bravo for the home made antenna. I see that you really appreciate your new transceiver. I await mine with impatience. 73´s dear friend and thank you very much for your great videos. F1JJM Laurent

great video Paul!

I knew it would work. Good build Paul.:0)

This is a great idea for an antenna! Might I suggest that you sand off the backside of the tape to preserve the measurements in the future. Love the X6100 in the field. I find that I don't need an antenna analyzer when I'm out portable with the X6100, one less thing to pack/lose!

I tie a long string with a brightly-painted lead sinker to my tape's eyelet, then launch the sinker with a slingshot. Easy to pull a string. You've given me the idea for combining the balun in the tape case (currently, it's in a 3d printed box). Thanks, Paul. 73's de Wes KN4NPH

Nice experiment Paul. and it works! Thanks for sharing! 73

Nice Video Paul, Great idea for using the tape measure. I've seen some EFHW with a 100pf across the radio socket (bnc in your case) to help with bringing the higher bands into check

Great video 💪😊

Thanks for posting Paul. This is a good idea. I am thinking that making one of these where I can quickly adjust the length without taking the antenna down would be good. Perhaps more convenient than a linked dipole where the antenna has to be taken down to add/remove links.

Hi Paul, it is always great to watch your incredible videos. The landscape of Slovak looks so beautiful. Your tape measure/long wire antenna really worked well. Hope the injury in your hand have healed up. Must admit that all your works are so neat and clean. Meanwhile, I liked your X-6100 pouch, where can one get it. Also wanted to know from your experience about the X-6100's pros and cons. And finally, would it be a good rig for a HF beginner? Hope to hear on my queries at your leisure. Cheers! New Delhi

Great video!

Great project fer QRP, it's amazing what you are doing. 7351 you are inspiring me to make the exame fer amateur radio in Portugal.

When putting your antenna in a tree, may I suggest that you carry some extra line( like heavy braided fishing line ) and a heavy fishing weight( about 4 to 6 oz ) as a throwing device. This throw line makes it much easier to your antenna in the tree. Some people even use a slingshot to get antenna support line way up in the tree. One time I even used a zebco fishing reel attached to a slingshot to get my antenna support line way up in the tree.

Nice Paul! I use a 100 ft metal tape measure as an adjustable counterpoise with various vertical antennas. Like your idea Sir! 73, KF6IF

Antenna is great, but you need a throwline, put a line in the tree and pull the antenna up. Tape measure will last a lot longer that way. It is a good idea though I think. I may build one, qrp, pota and antennas are about my main interest.

Hi Paul, Yet another great video from you. I sincerely hope that I can work you one day myself. I often listen around the bands for you on Hf & 6 Meter's, but no joy upto now, even during watching & listening to you on your live broadcasts Paul. I always recognize your voice, so when you do manage to answer me, I will come back to you with your name without you having to tell me it, LOL. I can't help thinking that your favorite subject in Amateur Radio IS Antenna's. It's the same with me. I was also wondering if the high SWR that you were getting on some bands might have been due to the angles of the antenna through the trees. I wonder if you were able to got that tape higher & more vertical & away from the tree trunks, maybe you might have got even better results. that's just a thought on my part. Also, as a few others have mentioned that maybe some ground radial wires out from the earth side/section of the BNC socket on the tape measure should also improve things. Once again Paul, many thanks for a great video. You are always a Great inspiration to other Amateur Radio operators, especially to many newcomers to our great hobby. 73, De Ray, M0RAY, Sittingbourne, Kent, South East England.

Well done Paul 👍. It's a great experience project you've made. Very exciting to watch the posting video. Thank you Paul. From Idil F McDermott Batam, Indonesia Sr.Hook Up & Commission Tech (Telecommunications)

Hi paul another great video great antenna , i am curious about the external battery you use to power the radio whats the power rating and can they handle 20 watts from the xiegu G90 thanks

Great video, Paul, the antenna worked well with your QRP set up. I run QRP, most of the time too 73 de W2DWL

Hey Paul, Excellent work and your experiment was very clever and a success! We are all always striving to carry minimal and have a quick set up {especially antennas} and that was a great example. Good to see it worked with some great contacts QRP. Also a beautiful spot there in that Forrest with nice views..Do you know what the elevation is there? I really enjoy you videos and thanks for taking the time and effort putting them together. Keep em coming. Cheers Daniel.

Merci Paul pour cette démonstration et ton invention. 73 à toi de la part de Gérard de Paris F5MOX aussi en qrp. Tu regarderas mes vidéos. J'espère un jour te contacter.

Hi. Nice video. It would also have been interesting to see if you got a better match by shortening it (reeling it in) to get a better match on higher bands.

NIce job Paul! :-) What firmware are you running on your X6100?

Thank you for your excellent informative videos. From USA. 73

Very nice antenna dear Paul..Hats off u..Keep it up..73

Very nice spring excercise, fantastic location and good food for thought! It mus be very handy to know the precise length of the antenna at any moment while pruning and tuning :) 73! Linas LY2H

An arborist throw line would be a nice way to get your antenna up without worrying about damaging your tape.

Cool!

Well it worked that’s the main aim all the best Paul Regards Tony M7CVK

Came here to see how this antenna measures up.

Perfeito, maravilhoso vídeo

Nice job Paul! The best from LB1NH Arild

Very nice job Paul! Next time take a hammock, tarpoline, BBQ, beer and make a overnight weekend trip! 😄 Looks like a great place to do that.

Welcome 🇵🇱 Paweł nareszcie

Danke für das tolle Video.73.von Jozef,Wien.😊😊😊

Nice job! May be You should try 150 pF for upper bands? Or raise the transformer a little bit higher

Once again a very well made video. As usual very informative. 73 de Allain VE2GBG

great

While I use an antenna tuner on any wire antenna to be able to have less than 1.5:1 SWR, you do not lose any real power until the SWR rises above a 3:1 SWR. Although today's transmitters throw fits at any SWR over 1.5:1, a tube hybrid transmitter can take the reflected power of an match less than 3:1 with little problems. A God trick would have the reflected power arrive back at the transmitter 180° " out of phase" which adds to the outgoing power without distortion. You can experiment with this for another video to prove the concept. I have, and it works well when you combine your antenna analyzer with your tuner. You will see the power increase rapidly when you achieve the out of phase condition. I operated for many years with just one dipole fed with RG-6 after the tuner into a 200' standard configuration center fed dipole on ANY band we have privelages on below 54 Mhz. The tuner was a Heathkit SA-2060A and the radio was a Yaesu 1.5 to 30MHz continuous (Navy MARS operator).Somehow the combination of being on a 550' hill with the antenna 70' in the air (#10 stranded) made 80 watts sound like a kilowatt because my signal was so strong sounding. A tuner doesn't waste hardly any power because it is simply an impedance transformer with a rolling inductor instead of a power wasting tapped coil.Your expeditions are interesting to me as I am old now and cannot do what you do anymore. Keep it up for me, please? 73 DE W4FJF.

Nice going Paul. Just be sure to keep the tape measure dry to avoid rust. A tape with the spring is even worse if wet as the spring will seize up. You could also fill the tape with copper wire. But no metre marks. hi. 73-74

To get around scrapping the paint off measuring tape, you might do an experiment with a spool of stainless steel fishing/trolling line.

73, Tom. Really nice videos! Great result! May be you need to some changes wit un un?

Good job Paul ! I have had this idea a while ago but did not get to build this antenna. Maybe a little difference in length of your radiator element would improve your SWR results, and I also would try to add a 4m long counterpoise (0.05 wavelength on the lowest freq). 73 de ha7wx / va3kwx chris

That was a really cool project. For use on the higher bands, couldn't you use the reel at the appropriate length for the band? Since you're making the connection from the jumper to a measured length of the antenna? I will be the first to admit I don't know how the rolled up part of the antenna would affect resonance.

You need a tennis ball, a long length of paracord tied to it and a slingshot to fire the tennis ball over the tree branch. You can then attach the other end of the paracord to the tape measure and pull it up.

Man I gotta build one of these... seems easy enough too. Do you think an SO-239 connector would fit here? I'll have an extra one in a few days.

That works we!l..How did you get it up into tree..??

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Thanks Paul you do good work keep going Mate . vk3ut Greg down under 73s mate

I bet if you added a small counterpoise or ground spike it would improve your results. might be worth a try???

If you moved the alligator clip to a shorter length, would that give you better SWR on higher frequencies?

Hi Paul it's very interesting a nice discovery, can you make a vedio of a shorted dipole antenna for fm transmitter? Thanks and more power. Viewing from Malaysia 👍

Great antenna idea Paul, perfect for SOTA, POTA, IOTA, and anytime you want to play ham radio for fun! 72, Dave - KU9L

The "key" of the EFHW ant is your "10kv 101" capacitor.

Thanks for the video. I found it really interesting as I am always looking to build antennas. I have a couple of questions I am hoping you can answer. I am a newer ham so please forgive me if my questions sound unintelligent. 1) I think you said that this would not be a could use for multi bands, however if this was made to 80m length, could you place the alligator clip at the 40m, 20m, 10m (ect) lengths and get a better SWR reading for that particular band? 2) If it was made to 80m, would you have to change the torrid coil count? And would that torrid coil still work for all bands? Thank you for your time and videos! de KF0JFW

Hello Paul For the highest frequencies we see that the SWR is rising up. Probably we are getting in the long antenna regime (for the short waves). It would be interesting to test the antenna with a 1 to 4 or even better with a 1 to 6 transfo. What is your point of view? Best regards and 73 times 73 Yves

My question is why not sand the blank side of the tape measure instead of the side with the measurements? That would preserve the measurements for future use.

Any thoughts of reeling it in part way for different bands and scraping off paint there? The coiled tape will make things interesting, but it might work.

👍👍👍🖐

I would have left it at 50m and used a 9:1 UnUn instead. Add 10m to 12m of wire as a counterpoise. Also, the DC resistance is probably quite high. G7VFY.

would a ground spike help the tuning?

Hi Paul nice do try put 10m of coax on and SWR should be better and do try and put short +/- 5 m counterpoise on I use the counterpoise to ancore the ant to ground.73, Pieter

Very inspirational video! I was thinking about making a tape measure yagi, but this project is giving me new ideas. Thank you from JO21DM. 73's.

Hey Paul, sorry i forgot my phone at home at sunday, but it was not a good day for my field test with homebrew Zepp Antenna.. the Twin Wire Line i have build was so twistet an i cant get the Antenna in good forms. Day before i have run a EFHW often on 20/40/80 but with other schematic of Balun and with 20.5m Wire and Loading Coil with 110uH additional 2m Wire and i have a ground wire with 0.05 Lamba for each Frequency and it works with good SWR. I think you know this Antenna. But i only run CW but no one wants answer me, i am too slow i think. But when i learned one think, fast ready to use Antenna for Multiband ist the EFHW the good choice and i will built the EFHW with an additional Tuner Setup, this include the 42m Wire and two Ferrite Balun and the Band from 10,15,17,30,40,80m. To your antenna i see you dont have any Ground wire, and it works too, Cool, its not recommend to have anytime a 10m GFK Mast, a few Tree and the Antenna Wire, at the first time years ago i do the same, but then every time a put the gfk mast to my field test and it will works without the many things a put every time with. That a good inspiration to do like you do. Only the throw up from wire on the tree i will use some Polyamid Wire and Polycarbonat Insluator for the Antenna Wire, for years i do so i let binding the Polyamid Wire at my Special tree an could use it every time again with an easy trown up at the 2th time i go to the place for field test, and put up easy the Antenna Wire drawn with pulley up. The Tree will survive it, hi. Ok see you at the Bands and wish You all the best, 73 DD1FK

Thank, very interesting. But EFHW is for half wavelength for 80m it should be 40m but on the video you remove the paint on 80m, why?

Your high SWR is probably due to the low height of the radiator. If you can get it up at least to 30 ft., you might see much lower SWR.

You already have unpainted rivets on the tape! The rivets will give a good anti-pull-off connection so the croc doesn't slip off. Aah, I see how you used tape positions to tune. Discount the comment above as I was not far enough into the video yet to understand. I leave my above comment as it still contains fair info for experimental antenna work. Good work on the antenna build and contacts.

Hi Paul, very nice idea for a portable multiband antenna. But I don't understand, why this antenna should not be good for the higher bands? Just shorten it for 20m or 10m so that you have an exact halfwave antenna for this bands. Then you will get a perfect SWR and this will work fine. You just need more sand paper and probably some gloves to prevent you from more injuries... 73 Martin (DG4BAD) Would be nice to here you again on some bands...

How much do you like the X6100?

vary nice!!!! but soo hard to find a metallic tape 50m long!

Wow, thanks for the idea ! Will give it a try here in Southern California.. 73 - KA6KRC

Iam doing well

Mabe this is my first antennas? Thank's for good ideas. 73

lol when you start talking about taking the antenna down you sound like a yoga instructor ending a class with a relaxing voice. you should end with some phrase like "the radio within me hears the radio within you. namaste."

Poul please send the link for case bag Transporter x61000? Tnx

Hello Paul you look well what happen to your radioxiegu5105 good luck

17m is not a multiple of 80-40-20 or 10m so the SWR is as one would expect.

Where can I buy that carry bag, any links. Thanks de vu3mes

Well done! You need a Patreon account.

8:36 *а где изоляторы ?*

Why not just wind the antenna in a little to tune it

Excellent your vídeos 73 de PY3FBI

Use a child's fishing rod to help getting antenna up in the tree

Stainless steel. MISERABLE antenna. Steel has very high losses.

Been really enjoying your videos. I am new to ham (got my Technician ticket here in the US just last week) and QRP is of much interest. Your videos have been great!! Also, I grew up in Puerto Rico and watched your video from about a year ago where one of your friends made a contact in Puerto Rico. Very cool! 73 de KK7EHF (possibly W7EDZ if my vanity call sign is approved)

Thank you so much for your video and antenna work. Ke0hwt 73

ma va curarti

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