"QSO King" End Fed Antenna

[KC1BAQ]

Hey guys,

Has anyone used a "QSO King" End Fed antenna built by NU0R? I'm looking for a better antenna and thinking that an end fed might be a good option to experiment with. It seems to be popular and highly rated. What are your thoughts?

Here is the review on eham:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/9943

73,
Joe
KC1BAQ

[K1RCT]

I have no experience with this or this type of antenna however:
I do own a New, Unused end-fed antenna. An Alpha Antenna 6-160 Meter J-Pole Type.
You are more than welcome to check it out, put it up and try it and if you like it, I'd be willing to sell it to you for what I paid.

The QSO King ANtenna you referred to seems to have good reviews on eHam here.

[KC1BAQ]

I wanted to give everyone an update on the QSO King antenna. I'm really pleased with the performance of this antenna so far. I have the feedpoint connected to my balcony and the other end to a tree in the backyard. The antenna is about 20ft above the ground and is 117' long.

At first, I tried the antenna with the recommended 50' of coax back to the radio. This produced a lot of RF in the shack on certain bands and made my gear go crazy. Next, I installed the recommended choke balun or isolator (also available from the manufacturer) at the radio end of the coax and this improved the performance and reduced the RF in the shack. Less than 3 SWR across most ham bands from 160 to 6, but the impedance is a little high in some spots (up around 100). This is easily tuned and I'm going to play around with a counterpoise to see if I can get it down.

So far I've been getting good signal reports and even heard W1AW in Hawaii last night coming in really loud. The guys on the 80M net I check into were impressed with my signal into PA and were asking about the antenna. Several of the other guys also have restricted space.

Its rated for 1.5KW so I have room to put an amplifier on it once I find a good deal.

My hope is that someone might find this helpful if they are in a similar situation.

73,
Joe

[KC1BAQ]

Just made my first SSB contact to Japan on 18123 with JR7TKG! Im so excited!

73,
Joe
KC1BAQ

[N1ZN]

Joe,
Congrats on Japan. Always a thrill to get the first Japan. My first was on a vertical a couple of days after i upgraded to general. On 10 meters.
Jim N1ZN