Monday, July 13, 2026

K6ARK ultra light endfed antenna

 After I finished the micro match I finally had some time to build the actual antenna. I took about 21m very thin insulated copperwire and fit a coil of 10 windings (coil form supplied with the kit) in on about 1,8m from the micro match. Everything is described on K6ARK's website. Then I cut the wire back till I had the best match on 7,1 Mhz, the center of the 40m band. This is the final product on the red cutting board, see picture on the right. I had to cut back about 1,5m in total. The black cable tie is a reusable one, I found it excellent to mount the wire to a low tree in my garden. Below some pictures of the SWR/R/X. Big surprise was the SWR in the CW part of the 10m band which is a surprise for me. I can now use this antenna on 4 bands without a tuner.




I had the idea to saw a antenna wire winder from the red cutting board. But it would be a lot of work on not nearly as effective and light as the UL antenna wire winder that can be 3D printed with the print files from K6ARK. But I haven't got a 3D printer! However I know another HAM (PC3EK Eddy) in my neighbourhood who builds his own 3D printers. So I asked him if he was able to print a UL wire winder for me. This was asked at 8:20 this morning and he delivered the printed product for free at my job 2 hours later. Wow, I was impressed and grateful for his help. The final final product is shown below.


Look at the incredible weight of this 4 band endfed. Only 93 grams. This is truly ultra light.

Now I need to test this antenna. Not sure if it will be at home or in the field. It will be a surprise.

2 comments:

John AE5X said...

So what are your plans with this antenna, Bas? Portable ops or vacation travel...?

73,
John

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello John, both actually. But first plans are vacation travel. The only challenge with an antenna like this is to find a tree or something to hang the antenna. I have got a 12m pole but not enough room in our small car to take with me. So I hop for a tree like had last year in Sweden.

73, Bas