The Signal Report | Operator Stories, Antenna Physics, Field Reports | Greyline

The most-viewed product on our site is a nine-foot piece of aluminum, and almost nobody knows what it does. Kraus on radiation resistance, where the 5/8-wave point lands at each height, and why the tilt base decides whether this is an afternoon or a project.

A perfect 1:1 match proves your power left the radio. It does not prove it left as signal. Maxwell and Zavrel on the difference, the dummy-load thought experiment, and the one question to ask any antenna maker who says the word efficient.

A good tuner, a clean match, and the SWR wandering from 17 meters down. The tuner is fine; the antenna is moving. The three usual suspects, the physics of why low bands suffer first, and the free fix to try before you buy anything.

The common-mode choke goes on the radio side of the tuner, on the matched line. Between the antenna and the tuner it only makes work for your ATU. The published physics of W7EL, K9YC, W2DU, and W7SX, plus three real stations from one week of Greyline mail.

Every antenna in the line covers 160 through 6 meters. Height does not decide which bands you get; it decides which band you peak on. Why the core line stops at 28 feet on purpose, where each height shines, and how to pick yours.

The 125W weatherproof LDG RT-100 lives at the antenna base, powered over the coax, matching 160-6M at the push of a button. Why the bundle puts the tuner where the physics wants it, and when high-power stations should choose differently.

Twice a day the terminator sweeps your station and the low bands open along it. Here is the physics of greyline propagation, the field evidence, and how to be ready.

A current balun forces equal currents; a voltage balun forces equal voltages -- and on any real antenna, only one of those keeps the feedline out of the antenna. Including the voltage balun's one legitimate job.

A 4:1 balun often makes the SWR meter happier without making your signal stronger. Real analyzer plots from N3EQF show why -- and where the match should actually live.

Ground is three different jobs wearing one word: lightning protection, the RF return, and bonding. Here is the untangling, with the bookshelf open -- N0AX, N6LF, and K9YC.

A wire up the flagpole, a 49:1 at the base, and an SWR meter reading 1:1 -- so why is nobody coming back? Because half of that antenna is missing, and the yard was never going to hold it. The physics, the fix, and one question to ask before you spend a dollar.

Your tuner says the SWR is fine and the band says nothing. Here is the one equation that explains it, from Kraus and Zavrel, plus what Severns actually measured about radials and why a vertical dipole is a different animal.