1:49 Balun HF Shortwave Antenna, 1‑30Mhz FE8 CW SSB End Fed Half Antenna, PVC End Fed Radio Antenna, for Outdoor

I purchased this antenna for my QRP kit, for use with a TruSDX, and am very happy with it. I set this up today in a low angle sloper configuration, and made great contacts hundreds of miles away on JS8Call and Winlink with about 4 watts.It will take some time for me to learn how best to use this antenna, but here are the lessons I have learned so far:- Unlike other EFHWs, the transformer and coax did not like being on the ground. SWR decreased when lifted off of the ground.- SWR was best with a 1:1 balun choke in the coax close to the antenna (pictured). Without the balun, or with the balun at the transmitter side, I had an unusable SWR except for one point near 6.5 mhz, outside of the Amateur bands. With the balun close to the antenna, I can use this without a tuner on 80 and 60m, and with a tuner on 40, 30, and 20 (note: a lack of perfect resonance doesn't mean you are radiating any less power, that is a myth. You simply need the tuner to ensure your transceiver isn't receiving too much reflected power. Reflected power from the antenna will reflect again off of the tuner, and back out to the antenna).- Using some shrink wrap on the end of the antenna allowed for the attachment of some shock cord for expedient mounting (pictured).- The English instructions have a humorous translation from Chinese 😆 but you'll have to buy this antenna to see what I mean!In the future I will experiment with the following:- The entire antenna laying on the ground- A counterpoise wire attached to the BNC lug- Different configurations such as an inverted VI recommend this antenna. I see now that there are similar models at lower prices from other sellers here on Amazon, but I can confirm that this one is working great so far.

Tuned well on 10, 20 and 40 SWR was 1.5 or less. Didn’t tune at all on 80, lowest SWR WAS 6.99. Wasn’t expecting 80 to work but was hoping. 12, 15 and 17 will be tested next. Expecting decent results. Great for field work.