Understanding and Building the End-Fed Wire Antenna – Mike Dunstan G8GYW

This month, our club was fortunate to host guest speaker Mike Dunstan, G8GYW, who gave a fascinating presentation on the design, characteristics, and installation of his End-Fed Wire Antenna.

While End-Fed Wire antennas are often perceived as having high SWR, being difficult to tune across bands, and potentially inefficient compared to other designs, Mike demonstrated how detailed modelling, careful positioning, and precise installation can result in excellent performance.

For many of us looking to operate on HF bands from home, the End-Fed Wire offers a significant advantage: its discreet nature. It’s much less conspicuous than easily visible antennas like dipoles, beams, verticals, or cobwebs.

Mike explained that by incorporating a strategically placed Common-Mode Choke in the feeder line and feeding the antenna at a calculated distance from the wire’s end, it’s possible to install a well-tuned and highly usable HF antenna, even in a reasonably sized garden – making it accessible to many members.

With several members recently discussing the setup and installation of their first HF antennas, such as Doublets, Windoms, and G5RVs, Mike’s presentation was perfectly timed and sparked considerable interest and numerous questions from the attendees.

A big thank you to Mike for an engaging and informative presentation that has inspired many of us to consider trying an End-Fed Wire antenna ourselves.

A copy of Mike’s presentation slides are available HERE.