Return of the End Fed Eighth Wave (EFEW) Antenna…Another POTA Success on 80M with a 20M EFHW

It’s a well known fact that sneaking off and activating a park behind your spouse’s back is grounds for divorce in some cultures. But AA1F’s POTA activation of Usher’s Road State Forest in Upstate New York (K-5355) produced such neat results that I can’t help but keep him! The 20M band had been getting him down, so he tried 80M on the trusty Radiowavz 20M EFHW antenna, with the unun approximately 13 feet in a tree and the free end hanging at 18 feet. By his report it was a slack “U”-shaped configuration with only 25 feet between his chosen trees. While not measured during this outing, typically the SWR of 80M on this antenna is around 5:1. AA1F used his trusty Yaesu FT-891A transceiver and LDG Z-100 Plus autotuner.

While AA1F ultimately only made 11 QSOs, the propagation pattern is nonetheless fascinating. Not surprising, operating 80M on an antenna situated less than 20 feet from the ground produced a near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) pattern, with the farthest contact (marked above with a blue star) reaching 374 miles. The shortest contact distance was only 63 miles (pink star). Seven of the QSOs fell within a radius of 158 miles (denoted by the green circle surrounding the Usher’s Road State Forest activation site, while two others were slightly further. Several of AA1F’s contacts expressed surprise at finding an SSB POTA activator on 80M. Most of his received signal reports were 5×9, with one reporting 5×20+.

So, what I am really getting at here is that a 20M EFHW antenna is quite useful for 80M medium distance communications (approximately 150 miles or less) when set up more-or-less horizontally at a height from ground of less than 20 feet. My interest in the End-Fed Eighth Wave (EFEW) wire antenna continues to be piqued. Thanks AA1F for the cool data…even if you did ditch me!

KM1NDY