Practical Antennas

last updated 29 November 2023.

This site is about practical antennas for ham radio, based on over 50 years of building and experimenting. "Practical" means using materials and skills you have available to choose and/or build antennas that fit your specific needs.

Note: this web site is still under construction. There are over a hundred articles that I reference, but that I haven't written yet, and many more beyond that. But you can enjoy the rest of the articles in the meantime.

I've tried to lay out this site so you can find the information you want in various ways: let me introduce to the different sections (which will overlap, so you can get to the same article by different paths). Click on the section titles to go to that page.

Not quite ready for overly technical articles? Check out the Beginners' Corner.

NEW! RF EXPOSURE EVALUATION is required of all US amateurs

The Philosophy of Antennas is very important: it is how to think about antennas. That's one thing that makes this site different. I suggest you read this first.

Antenna Theory gives a background on why different antennas work the way they do.

Antenna Designs organizes articles by antenna type. If you are looking for a specific antenna, this may be the best way to find it.

Antenna Applications is organized by usage: portable antennas, antennas for emergency communications, limited space, radio direction-finding, etc.

Construction Methods looks at different ways of building antennas using your particular application / skills / available materials / circumstances, including Masts and Antenna Supports.

Feeding and Matching is about how we get power from the radio to the antenna (and vice versa), including feedlines and impedance matching.

Antenna Measurements is about the different types of measurements we can take on our antennas and how to interpret the results.

Antenna Modeling looks at how software modeling can save us time and effort in developing antennas and predicting their performance.

Quick links to all the Videos.

The Resources page provides reference materials, such as tables of pipe, screw, and wire dimensions, along with links to other sites, and a Glossary that defines words that might not be familiar to some readers.

Radio Direction-Finding antennas, techniques, and projects now have their own index page.

Site Map, for those who just want a list of topics to browse.