11 Jun 2022

2m halfwave antennas


Most people opt for 5/8th wave antennas when they want better ranges on their 2m handhelds. Some years ago now I made a half-wave antenna for 2m. It was widely used on my many 2m rigs. It was first used in the 1970s, so must be about 50 years old! 

The idea was simple: the end is a high impedance so I just added a tuned circuit tapped at the 50  ohm point to match to the rig. It got me across the English Channel with a 10mW AM handheld (160km), so it must work! The antenna was actually on the Fredbox.

Clearly this would work on 70cm if scaled.

One photo shows the matching arrangement and the other the full whip.

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