I’m a big fan of EFHW, been using them for many years, what I discovered when putting the UNUN towards the ground is that it de tunes due to the ground capacitance effect. 99% of us have to compromise and making the most of what we’ve got. 20 is an important band so I would experiment with getting the UNUN higher. Congratulations on what you have achieved so far. How important is 80 to you? Try your configuration using the house to mount the UNUN as high as possible. Less coax loss etc and use earth stakes around your garden, multiple earths do help lower the noise floor. Let us know how you get on. It’s a great hobby and after 45 years I’m still learning. 73 de M0AZE Mike ,

Stop worrying about SWR if it's below 2.0. If it works it's fine. Good job.

Keep at it Matt. All experimentation and success/failure. All part of the hobby mate. 👍🏻

Hi I use same efhw and use 3 ferrite clips on coax as it enters the shack wall and then a 1:1 line isolator at radio end with great results 👍

You dont need to have a choke, most say you do and do it because they think its a must, I dont use one but have a good grounding at the antenna end to an earth stake. At the top of the pole where the wire leaves try and find a way of changing that angle ie 90 degrees or more, that angle seems to sharp to me.

Matt, first, the choke is not going to help your SWR it will help keep any you do have giving you grief at the shack end. Second, your connection method is introducing more loss in your feed line, think 1db per termination, so, you have your plug, your barrel connection and another plug per side of the choke, that's 6 connections. Apart from being very lossy they also present 6 more points of failing. Third, wind your choke equally on each side and wind it before you put the connection on. Lastly, you need to change the angle of your antenna, the angle is too acute. I think this last part is your issue. Either lower the main pole to get a better angle and dangle the remainder where you can out of the way, remember there is no perfect antenna for anyone, sometimes you have to live with what you've got. You're getting out and there's no smoke, so all good ;)

Matt i have bought numerous antennas from Ian and they are excellent. Something you could try would be to put your transformer box up on your pole you have on your T&K brackets and then slope the antenna down towards your garden. I find using end feds in the sloping configuration works best for me. Keep an eye out on eBay for seller G4ICD. Geoff is a professional RF engineer and sells some of the best stuff available. Now and again he has good line isolators for sale which i use at my QTH. The coax from your transformer forms part of the antenna so put your choke where the coax enters your house so that you have a longer run as it acts as a counterpoise and should help with your SWR. Having it too close to the transformer can cause problems. Hope this helps. 73 Syd

Having 17m that nice is a real bonus. You might want to just leave it and accept 1.8-1.9 on 20m to keep 17m that good. Otherwise, I think your guess is correct that it's the configuration of the antenna. I've always found EFHW's to be fiddly when in close proximity to objects. Not necessarily related to the 20m SWR, but you might want to consider putting a few more turns on your choke. (REF: G3TXQ - common-mode choke measurements) [EDIT: spelling]

If the EFHW had a 80 mtr inductor just a few mtrs above the balun , It's just a few turns , it would have better resonance on the other bands .

can i ask why you haven't installed the transformer on the pole on the house and then run down the garden and across and back up the other side

Hi Matt, according to stuff I found on Ian's website, using angles less than 90 degrees is to be avoided. Perhaps if you try lowering the height on the pole to get the angle of the wire up closer to 90, it might help. However, I expect there to be a trade off in having the antenna sit lower to the ground. Then there's the EMF compliance regs! Not easy in small spaces.

I would get the unun higher my one is not happy low down i have it mounted at the top of my pole now and better all around .

When making chokes install plugs last,,,high swr on 20mtr install a counterpoise around at least 15ft in length to plate on transformer,,this will help tuning.,,,also have common mode choke just before the coax enters the shack not at the feed point this will help cancel common mode current on coax shield so you get more accurate swr readings.

Your original choke was better , No pl plugs and barrel connector to add losses ... As long as it works it doesn't have to look nice 👍

Hi Matt take your sirio gainmaster down and try it, i had problems in the past with them being to close to each other.

Did you manage to get your swr down on 20 metres? If so what changes did you make Mat de 2e0bln Dan

try a different lenth of feedline because i was having trouble with my inverted v and i changed the lenth of my feedline and the configeration and that seem to fix it just a thougfht mate mine should be coming soon so ill let you know how i get on with it 73 and hope you get it sorted 73 M7BYF ste

Hi matt,did you ever sort ya efhw out on 20m?? I have the same problem but on 10m now

Hi...... I have the same antenna but my choke is at the radio end and I use a copper rod on the ground of the 49.1 transformer ......... Info form the manual little counterpoise is needed for an end-fed antenna and in most cases the mounting post/mast may be enough. If RF current becomes an issue a common mode choke can be inserted in the feed line at least 10 foot from the antenna or and at the radio end, some experimentation may be needed. Earthing can be done if required at the bracket, this is to earth and is DC grounded on the Multi-band antennas. Your antenna has no ground you are using a fiberglass pole...just my thought add a copper rod........73s

90 degrees is best

Simple answer is to stop paying Ian. To build somthing a child could build their is plenty of videos on KZfaq. Even a Google search give plenty of information. Paying Ian for part that cost no more than 25 pounds and the rest is just greed in profit.