Installing an End-Fed Long Wire Antenna – David M0XDF

Club Treasurer David M0XDF was our speaker for the first of our meetings at our new venue and our new ‘fourth Wednesday’ meeting date.

Our new meeting place is Priestwood Community Centre in Bracknell. With growing Club Membership the large hall, outside seating area and seprate kitchen are just what we needed. When setting up for the meeting the close parking area and automatic doors were a great bonus. The availability of WiFi will now allow us to hold presentations by remote speakers and also to make some of our own presentations available for remote members to join in and view. The large motorised projector screen was idea for our new laser projector and the display could be seen easily.

David M0XDF talked us through slides and photos taken when designing, building and erecting his EFLW antenna. It was surprising just how far trees can sway in a strong wind, so an automatic tension system was designed to keep the wire taught but allowing it to move with the tree where it was anchored. The system was concealed in a plastic pipe with a check gap at the bottom to indicate if the line had broken or come down.

With an external remote tuner and trunking of the coax to the indoor shack the antenna was always ready to use.

Dave G3YMC also talked about his experience with EFLW Antennas and offered some tips on how to get the best from them.

To finish the evening, Colin M0XCA ran through the functions and facilities within our Groups.io ‘Reflector’ service and a very quick example of using WhatsApp.

Thank you to all that attended our first meeting at our new location and to all those that helped run the meeting, some arriving early and staying late to help.

Our next meeting is on 25th September at 20:00 where it will be good to see everyone again .