When Your Antenna’s “Wideband” Isn’t Wide Anything
Meet Harold von SWR, a man on holiday. A man with a dream. A man with a camper and the firm belief that his shiny new “wideband EFHW” would bring him global QSOs while parked at the picturesque (but RF-dead) Camp Silence Resort.
He had read the reviews: “No tuner needed! Resonant everywhere!” The brochure said it had a special capacitor — the kind that allegedly turns an ordinary wire into a magical, broadband, multiband marvel. A single sweep on the analyzer showed perfect 1:1 SWR dips across several bands. Harold’s eyes sparkled. He didn’t know it yet, but that capacitor was basically a parallel resonator dressed up as marketing.
Arrival at the Scene of the RF Crime
The camper was parked. The awning was out. The coffee was on. Harold mounted his EFHW like a proud flag of future DX glory. The feedpoint was zip-tied to a broom handle jammed into the grass. The wire sloped elegantly to the nearest pine tree. The “magic capacitor” sat smugly in its box, no doubt plotting its next deception.
He connected the coax, took one look at the SWR meter (1:1 — perfect!), and keyed up on 20 meters. “CQ, CQ, this is ON0HOLIDAY portable…”
Silence.
The QSOs That Never Came
Minutes passed. Then an hour. Not a single reply, not even a pity QSO from a local club net. His RBN spots? Non-existent. The magic capacitor was indeed doing something — but mostly it was just sitting there, happily dissipating a portion of his transmit power as heat while fooling the rig into thinking it was matched.
Creative Tuning (a.k.a. Desperation in Action)
At this point, Harold von SWR tried everything the forums had ever suggested, plus a few of his own inventions:
- Rotated the camper 17 degrees to “align with the ionosphere.”
- Moved his coffee cup closer to the feedpoint, convinced the steam might improve coupling.
- Placed his flip-flops under the EFHW transformer “for better dielectric balance.”
- Shouted “CQ” with a Bavarian accent, in case the propagation gods preferred authenticity.
- Adjusted the slope of the wire by tying it to the bike rack, the awning pole, and once, briefly, to his wife’s folding chair (which she did not appreciate).
The SWR meter stayed perfect. The airwaves stayed empty.
Reality Check
The thing about SWR is simple: it’s not a measure of how well you’re radiating. It’s only a measure of power transfer into whatever’s at the other end — whether that’s an efficient radiator or a lossy mystery box with a wire attached.
If you want to know how your antenna is performing, don’t worship the SWR meter. Count the contacts. Measure the reports. If all you’re hearing back is the sound of your own cooling fan, your “wideband” EFHW might just be a single-band compromise in fancy dress.
The 2-Short EFHW with 2 Coils — “Work Any Band!”*
Recipe (serves zero DX): take a wire that’s nowhere near λ/2, add two loading coils (“coals,” if you like barbecue RF), and declare victory.
- Cut your wire to a scenic but arbitrary length (e.g., 6–8 m instead of the ~λ/2 needed for the lowest band).
- Insert Coil #1 at ~0.33·λ and Coil #2 near the far end. Adjust turns until the analyzer shows pretty dips.
- Announce: “Works on every band!” because the rig now sees ~50 Ω somewhere between the coils and your hopes.
Reality check: coils only fake electrical length to hit resonance; they don’t create radiation efficiency. A true EFHW wants ~λ/2 (end-fed half-wave) on the band in question. Multi-band? Use proper matching + wire length choices, not souvenir inductors.
*Works on any band = power mostly heats the coils while your signal practices QRP invisibility.
The Trip Home
By the end of the week, Harold had logged a grand total of three QSOs: one from a guy two campsites over, one from a French station running a kilowatt into a beam, and one accidental contact with the local AM broadcast station’s re-radiated ground wave.
He packed up the EFHW, the capacitor still smiling inside, and drove home in silence — except for the faint hum of 50 ohms of disappointment.
Moral of the story? If your antenna works better as a laundry line, you might want to reconsider your DX strategy.
Mini-FAQ
- Does low SWR mean my antenna is efficient? — No. It just means your transmitter is happy. Your signal may still be awful.
- Do EFHWs work? — Yes, but most “wideband” claims are marketing smoke and capacitive mirrors.
- How do I really check performance? — On-air reports, RBN data, and actual QSOs — not just an analyzer screenshot.
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