{"id":8376,"date":"2024-02-22T10:54:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T05:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/?p=8376"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:50:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:20:25","slug":"improving-40-m-performance-of-my-efhw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/improving-40-m-performance-of-my-efhw\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving 40 m performance of my EFHW Antenna"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ScX4n0KkQ5Y?si=IBv053mWeP9Goe0D\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Performance of the <a href=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/first-trial-of-my-new-efhw-antenna\/\">EFHW which I had installed recently<\/a> was suboptimal on 40 m, though it was good on 20 m and 10 m. After getting a lot of advice from fellow hams both on air and online, I made some modifications in the layout of the EFHW. First I removed the counterpoise wire which had been connected to the ground outside my shack. Secondly I lowered the position of the balun to about 10 feet from the ground and anchored it to my compound wall fence with a nylon rope of about 2 m length so that it was away from the iron frame of the compound fence. Lowering of the balun gave me option of removing most of the zig-zag orientation of the antenna wire. Now it is almost an asymmetric inverted V configuration, mounted on a 16 feet non conducting pole fixed to my balcony with total height from ground of about 26 feet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8379\" src=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Improving-40-m-performance-of-my-EFHW.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1201\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Improving-40-m-performance-of-my-EFHW.jpg 1201w, https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Improving-40-m-performance-of-my-EFHW-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Improving-40-m-performance-of-my-EFHW-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Improving-40-m-performance-of-my-EFHW-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1201px) 100vw, 1201px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>VSWR spread on 40 m band came down from 2.6-1.9 to 2.25-1.4. On 20 m, the VSWR spread moved slightly upward from 1.5-1 to 1.6-1 from lower end to upper end of the band. On 15 m band it was better, with spread coming down from 2.3-1.7 to 2.0-1.7. On 10 m band, it was better from 1.8 to 1.4. There is only minimal spread of VSWR across the 10 m band, compared to other bands. <span style=\"color: #008000;\">All these VSWR values are tunable with the built-in automatic antenna tuner of my radio to get final VSWR of almost 1:1 for the radio.<\/span> On air performance was better on 40 m compared to previous configuration which I had posted yesterday. Even after 30 minutes of working on air, the radio did not hang.<\/p>\n<p>But performance was not at par with my previous\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/modified-inverted-v-40-m-antenna\/\">40 m modified inverted V half-wave dipole antenna<\/a>, which was about 1 m higher and with a galvanized iron pipe as mast. I could not raise the EFHW antenna to 24 feet as I had planned earlier, because I could not find the mechanism in the telescopic pole to raise it beyond 16 feet. I am wondering whether the one which I had purchased is a 16 feet version. I am still having a coil of HLF 200 cable tied to the mast, which I presume will act like a <a href=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/what-is-a-common-mode-choke-in-amateur-radio\/\">common mode choke,<\/a> though I have not calculated the inductance value. Coil has been made just beyond the first 10 m of cable where there is a joint with SO 239 barrel connector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Performance of the EFHW which I had installed recently was suboptimal on 40 m, though it was good on 20 m and 10 m. After getting a lot of advice from fellow hams both on air and online, I made some modifications in the layout of the EFHW. First I removed the counterpoise wire which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amateur-radio-ham-radio","category-antenna-and-propagation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Improving 40 m performance of my EFHW Antenna - Johnson&#039;s Techworld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johnsonfrancis.org\/techworld\/improving-40-m-performance-of-my-efhw\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improving 40 m performance of my EFHW Antenna - Johnson&#039;s Techworld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Performance of the EFHW which I had installed recently was suboptimal on 40 m, though it was good on 20 m and 10 m. After getting a lot of advice from fellow hams both on air and online, I made some modifications in the layout of the EFHW. 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