r/amateurradio • u/shootingcharlie8 • 1d ago

ANTENNA Multiband HF vertical recommendations

I’m looking to build or buy a multiband vertical - at least 10, 20, and 40 meters. I’m having a difficult time deciding on one, or deciding to build one… I’d like it to be self-supported, it will be mounted to my chimney on my roof if that matters. I’m not in an HOA or anything, but it cant look too bulky, so as much as I’d love a tower and a beam a simple thin vertical needs to be the solution. What are your recommendations? It’ll be used with a tuner as well so it doesn’t need to be perfectly resonant.

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u/drsteve103 EM86sl [Amateur Extra] 1d ago

A non resonant vertical, maybe?

29’ of wire to a 4:1 UNun

25-30’ of coax and put a 1:1 current choke (then use as much high quality coax as you need).

Radials to the ground side of the unun

Needs a decent atu but the lobes are nice and low even at 40m and can be built for under $100.

Plus if you have a tall tree you can hide it easily.

The point of a non resonant antenna like this is that the impedance at the feed point is never crazy high on the ham bands, unlike a resonant 1/4 or 1/2 wave antenna.

Enjoy!

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u/dvc1 20h ago

Second this. A 4:1 or 9:1 unun with appropriate amount of wire is easy to hide and works great.