Ham Radio Antennas in Practice

The antenna decides your station, and most of the choices are made on a small lot with a limited budget.

This book takes that reality seriously. You learn to read a gain figure without being fooled by it, calculate real feedline loss, and see exactly where a tuner hides loss instead of removing it. From there, you build: dipoles and fans, verticals with radial systems that work, loops, Yagis and phased arrays, and a full chapter of stealth antennas for restricted properties. Receiving antennas get their own treatment, because hearing is half the contact.

Propagation, station grounding and lightning protection, portable and VHF work, and analyser and VNA measurement complete the book. Every chapter connects theory to what you can measure, build, and repair at home. Written for licensed amateurs, new hams and anyone building antennas that must survive weather and neighbours.

What you will learn:

• Antenna fundamentals: fields, waves, gain, patterns, and how to read specifications without being misled
• Transmission lines and impedance matching: real feedline loss, tuner behaviour, and matching networks that work
• Dipoles and their variants, including fan and multi-band configurations
• Vertical antennas and ground systems, with radial systems that actually perform
• Loop antennas, Yagis, and directional phased arrays for practical gain and directivity
• Stealth and restricted-space antennas for small lots, HOAs, and neighbour-sensitive installations
• Receiving antennas and low-noise listening techniques, because hearing is half the contact
• Propagation, feedline routing, station grounding, and lightning protection
• VHF, UHF, portable operating, measurement with analysers and VNAs, plus modelling and building

This book is for licensed amateurs, new hams, and anyone building antennas that must survive weather and neighbours. If you want fewer guesses and more contacts, it belongs on your bench.