Homemade Endfed Antenna (with matching transformer)
Some photos of a homebrew endfed antenna installation are shown below. The antenna is roughly 125 feet in lenght and operates from 80m to 10m with the aid of an antenna tuner.
![]() Mounted matchbox with endfed antenna and counterpoise connected. |
![]() An RF choke installed near the feedpoint of the matchbox (snap-on ferrite core with several co-ax turns) |
![]() Antenna wire (~126ft) suspended in a spruce tree. |
A plot of the resulting SWR across the HF bands is shown below (thanks to K8QS for lending an antenna analyzer):

The folllowing plots show the SWR on 80m as the length of the antenna was trimmed in stage a several feet at a time. Moving left to right, one can see the antenna gradually getting better tuned for the 80meter band as the length in shortened.
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Here are some photos I took of the different stages in the build of a matching transformer for an end fed antenna. The windings had 2 primary windings and 14 secondary windings yeilding a 7:1 turns ratio, and hence a 49:1 impedance ratio (reflected
from secondary to the primary side).
![]() Magnet wire and 2 type 43 toroid cores |
![]() Core Winding: primary: 2 turns (bifilar); secondary: 14 turns |
![]() Adding SO-239 connector and a cap |
![]() Final mathing transformer for an end-fed antenna< |