As an alternative to the inverted L, ground system and auto-tuner I have been experimenting with the end fed half wave antenna (EFHW), sometimes known as the “Little Dutch Girl”. Feeding a half wave length of wire at the far end rather than in the middle as per the classic dipole means that the impedance at the feed point will be high. Around the order of 2500 ohms at resonance.

A 1:49 matching transformer is used to match the output of the transmitter and feedline to the antenna. These are conventionally made by winding transformers on a ferrite core with a 1:7 turns ratio.

In my small garden even with an inverted configuration as shown the lowest frequency I can fit half a wavelength in is 7MHz for the 40 meter amateur band. I have used an additional 2 meters of length to add a loading coil and a 1.5m length of wire to add a capability at 3.65MHz in the 80m amateur band.

I experimented with a commercial transformer, but ended up replacing most of the parts with more heavy duty components.

Here’s my 1:49 transformer based around 2 X FT240-43 ferrite cores:

In theory should be good for around 400W RMS or 1kW PEP.

And here’s the unit mounted at the bottom of the garden.

and the loading coil mounted on a former for the 80m band.