The Magical Mystery Wire: Confessions of the End-Fed Believers
The EFHW Fairy Tale
Once upon a time in the enchanted land of Hamsterville, a tribe of enthusiastic radio wizards discovered a legendary relic: the End-Fed Half-Wave antenna. Legends claimed it could work on all bands, needed no radials, and had an SWR so flat you could butter your toast with it.
Soon, word spread of the 80-10 and 40-10 magical variants, said to cover eight or more bands with one long wire and a tiny box of dreams (marketed as a 49:1 UNUN, or as it's known in marketing circles: "The Fairy Dust Transformer").
Newcomers, dazzled by tales of easy DX and invisible losses, strung up their wires from garden gnomes to chimneys. "Look! I'm getting a 1:1 SWR on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10! This must be the work of ancient RF sorcery!"
Yes, dear reader, SWR was perfect. The coax was smiling. The tuner was asleep. And the signal? Well, it took a vacation.
The Church of SWR: Where Numbers Matter More Than Physics
In this holy sanctuary, if the meter reads 1.0:1, then all is good in the world. Never mind that half your signal is boiling your ferrite core. Or that your feedline has become an unintentional radiator beaming RF into your toaster.
Never mind that the EFHW works well only on full or half-wave resonances. On other bands, it becomes a chaotic blend of high-impedance feedpoints and random lobes, like trying to toast a marshmallow with a candle three kilometers away.
"But I Made Contacts!" — The Flat Earth Defense
We've all heard it. "But I worked Japan with 5 watts on my 8010!" Yes, friend. And someone once caught a fish with a paperclip. That doesn't mean we should all start selling tackle boxes full of office supplies.
Just because you made a contact doesn't mean your antenna is performing efficiently. It's not a binary world of "contact or no contact". There's something called ERP (Effective Radiated Power), and your EFHW may be turning your 100W rig into a glorified light bulb.
The Reality of Lossy Magic
When you stuff a wideband transformer with 14+ windings, high-permeability ferrites, and a blind hope, you get heat, not signal. These end-feds often masquerade as efficient when in reality, they bleed power in the name of "multiband convenience."
Adding a compensation capacitor? That’s like putting a bandaid on a leaking submarine. It’ll change the SWR slightly. It won’t fix the underlying problem: you’re forcing a transformer to do a job it was never designed to do.
A Better Ending
Instead of worshiping at the altar of the multiband EFHW, consider dual-band EFHWs with proper design (e.g., 160/80, 80/40/20, 40/20), Z-match tuners for open-wire fed antennas, or — heavens forbid — resonant dipoles. They're boring, sure. But they radiate more than your coax braid.
So next time someone boasts about their 1:1 SWR on eight bands, smile gently. Offer them a dummy load. At least that radiates just as much, but won't give their toaster RFI burns.
End-Fed Myths: Debunked, De-swirled, and De-SWR-ed.
Read more about the mystique of EFHW in our knowledge base.
The views expressed in this article are occasionally a bit exaggerated ;), frequently sarcastic ;), and always written with a spark of humor ;). While the technical points are grounded in real-world experience, the tone is intentionally playful to challenge assumptions, provoke thought, and perhaps make the reader laugh a little.
If you recognize your setup in here — don’t worry. We’ve all been there. The goal isn’t to mock, but to move the hobby forward with a bit more clarity, a bit less noise, and a healthy dose of fun.
Serious about performance. Not always about tone.
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