The W3EDP Antenna was conceived in 1936. Over the years the design has changed. Watch the Video and decide for yourself, the answer to the question - Vanished or Evolved?
Good one. I use a traditional W3EDP extensively on my SOTA operations. I feed it via a 9:1 which is connected directly to my KX2, so no feeder. The radiator is set inverted V over a 5 m mast or simply thrown in a tree. The 17' wire lies on the ground. 73, Fraser MM0EFI
Thank you Peter for reminding the newbies of the W3EDP antenna. It's my opinion that part of what makes it work so well is that the tuner is a very simple resonant circuit and it is placed at the load, thereby minimizing losses due to SWR in the coax feeder. This would be a wonderful POTA or SOTA antenna I would not recommend placing the tuner at the radio end as this defeats the concept. PS. Our AM MW broadcasters use a tuner right at the base of the tower for the same reason. Many of those towers are NOT 1/4 wave tall or "resonant" either. They still put out like gangbusters and really are no less effecient when done this way. 73 OM
Great history and explanation. The EFHWs are evolutions of this, I would think, with ~66' of wire, a matching unit (wound toroid) but no counterpoise. I've used mine on 10, 15, 17, 20 and 40.
Wonderful video. The T&R Bulletin had a regular "28Mc/s" section as far back as the 1920s so I think there would have been a reasonable amount of activity and there were regular DX reports. The peak of Cycle 17 was 1937 at around the level we are likely to see in Cycle 25. It is definitely an antenna worth checking out for a lot of people who only have a modest amount of space at home as well as portable.
I have used one. The advantage is being able to get on 80m in a small garden. I recently calculated for using 300 ohm feeder as the matching section instead of the counterpoise and taking account of velocity factor it came in at 4.75m. I was going to put that section vertical and feed it with a 4:1 balun. In theory that would tune with an internal tuner. I have actually built it, but the rotten weather has stopped it going up. Soon hopefully. GM4SVM
Thanks Peter! I've used a W3EDP as a portable antenna for quite a long time, made from speaker wire , it plays very well indeed as a portable antenna because,it folds down to a small lightweight antenna. I also have an end fed zep and it does very well for me albeit , it's not as convenient with the 450 ohm feedline, (to wind up) . in my opinion, the EFZ better suited for home station deployment. By the way ,the G7FEK nested Marconi comes into mind once again that are in a way related to the EF Zepp and also a G5RV cut /dividend in the middle. All of these are a lot of fun antennas to experiment with. These are all good antennas for tight spaces, and or also for newer hams to try out. Newer hams : try the W3EDP it is a simple and fun antenna to play with using a spool of speaker wire and if you have a little pocket tuner such as a small"L" network like an mfj-16010 or homebrew.... 73
In the modern version, with the 67 ft wire and 17 ft of 450ohm LL. One of the LL wires attaches to the 67 ft and this is fed to the hot side of the unun or Balun, thus creating an 84 ft radiator. Whereas the other LL wire feeds into the ground side of the unun, thus creating a raised / parallel counterpoise. I’m not sure therefore how this then becomes an end fed zepp? Surely all this newer design is changing compared with the original is to conveniently use LL as the bottom 20% of the radiator and the 17ft counterpoise? Not sure how this differs very much from the original design in terms of wire lengths?
I think in those days the most fashionable aerial was the noisy ended aerial. The original aerial was a classic endfed with the matcher doing all the work this would have been quite inefficient,the 17ft leg would be a guess as it seems its unique to whatever components were available for the matcher. The evolved version is definitly an Endfed Zepp ...Thanks for the video
I'm not 100% but my gut says a two core 4:1 current balun is the way to go with this. I'm probably just going to use a cheap LDG and hope for the best though 😅
I forgot to mention, I find line losses IN GENERAL to be low for most HF setups when using non resonant antennas if you use good quality feedline of reasonable lengths. I like the flexibility and ease of using a tuner at the radio. My line losses are very low. I'm a big user of 'random' length antennas. Robert K5TPC
Yes, it works very well. I have been using 1/2 and 1/4 sized W3EDP/Zepps while camping for years. The 1/4 size, at only 21', is very easy to hang vertically will tune 20m and up with a 3:1 internal tuner. What's more, it will usually tune down to 80m with an external tuner, though it is probably not very efficient there. I've been using an LDG 4:1 unun at the feed point - it seems to tune a little more easily than with LDG's corresponding 4:1 balun, though they both do work. Anyway, thanks Peter for the deep dive video on the topic. Over the years I've had friends ask me what my camping antenna is, and it has led to many interesting discussions about when and how a W3EDP morphs into a Zepp. I usually conclude with "What is it? It's something that works!"
It's not vanishing antennas we have to worry about It's vanishing radios. Some day soon communication will be done strictly with computers and software, no actual radio invoved.
