Antenna Physics · The FoundationThe Theory We Build From

Robert J. Zavrel Jr. W7SX

Modern HF antenna physics expressed for working operators. Zavrel writes the way good engineers think — from first principles, with units, with the math present but never hiding the intuition. The standing physics anchor for every Greyline claim about radiation patterns, ground interaction, and feedpoint behavior.

Antenna Physics: An Introduction, ARRL, 2020. ISBN 978-1-62595-135-9.

John D. Kraus W8JKSK 2004

The antenna textbook against which all others are measured. Kraus established the analytical framework — antenna patterns, gain, polarization, arrays — that every modern designer still works inside. When Zavrel calls it the antenna bible, he is not exaggerating.

Antennas, McGraw-Hill. Editions span 1950 to the third edition with Marhefka, 2002.

Wes Hayward W7ZOI

Bench discipline for RF designers. Hayward’s work on receiver architecture, noise figure measurement, and experimental method underwrites how Greyline approaches feedline and matching network testing. The standing reference whenever a measurement claim needs to survive scrutiny.

Experimental Methods in RF Design, ARRL, with Campbell and Larkin.

Ground · Radials · Feedline · RFIWhat Happens Below the Feedpoint

Rudy Severns N6LF

The modern authority on vertical ground systems. Severns’ multi-year QEX series on radial systems — how many, how long, when they help, when they don’t — is the empirical record that informs Greyline’s position on radial-independence in elevated-feedpoint vertical dipoles. The starting point for any honest conversation about ground in HF verticals.

Verticals, Ground Systems and Some History — QEX series, 2010–2012. Reprints and follow-on papers at antennasbyn6lf.com.

Walter Maxwell W2DUSK 2009

The standing authority on transmission line behavior, reflection, and the physics of standing waves. Maxwell’s work corrected a generation of misconceptions about SWR and transmission line loss. The reference book on Greyline’s feedline shelf.

Reflections III: Transmission Lines and Antennas, CQ Communications.

Jim Brown K9YC

The working operator’s reference on RFI, common-mode current, ferrites, and choke balun design. Brown’s freely-distributed PDF guides have done more to clean up amateur installations than any commercial product. The standard against which Greyline’s own feedline kit recommendations are measured.

A Ham’s Guide to RFI, Ferrites, Baluns, and Audio Interfacing, available at k9yc.com/publish.htm.

Tom Rauch W8JI

Rigorous, opinionated, and frequently unpopular — which is the highest praise we can give to an antenna writer. Rauch’s work on receiving antennas, Beverages, and pennants shapes how we think about low-band reception. We don’t agree with every conclusion, but every claim of his is testable, which is the standard.

Technical articles archived at w8ji.com.

Low-Band DXing · 160 / 80 / 40The Hardest Bands, Solved

John Devoldere ON4UNSK 2024

The single most important book ever written on low-band operating. Five editions across three decades, each one expanded with new measurement, new modeling, and the accumulated experience of an operator who actually worked the world from a Belgian backyard. If Greyline ever publishes a low-band guide, ON4UN’s is the book it stands on.

ON4UN’s Low-Band DXing, ARRL. Five editions, most recent with editorial work by N6BV.

Gary Breed K9AY

Designer of the K9AY receiving loop — the small-footprint solution that put serious low-band reception within reach of operators without a Beverage-sized lot. The standard answer for receiving on 160 from a small property.

Original article: QST, September 1997. Subsequent refinements documented across QEX and NCJ.

Antenna Modeling · The Predictive LayerBefore the Pole Goes in the Ground

Roy Lewallen W7EL

Author of EZNEC, the Method of Moments modeling package that turned NEC from a graduate-school tool into a working operator’s instrument. Every Greyline pattern plot, gain figure, and angle-of-radiation claim that involves modeling traces back to EZNEC or a directly comparable NEC engine. Lewallen released the full EZNEC Pro+ as freeware in 2022 — a service to the community that continues to shape modern amateur antenna work.

EZNEC available at eznec.com.

L. B. Cebik W4RNLSK 2008

The most prolific antenna modeler in amateur radio history. Cebik’s thousands of pages on Yagi design, vertical behavior, off-center-fed dipoles, and small-antenna trade-offs are the working library every modeler eventually stands on. The original cebik.com is gone; the most complete public archive currently lives at on5au.be/Cebik.html.

Propagation · When and Where the Bands OpenThe Other Half of DX

George Jacobs W3ASKSK 2018

The canonical handbook on HF propagation prediction. Jacobs codified the practical use of solar flux, sunspot number, and ionospheric prediction for working operators. The book remains the starting point for anyone learning to read the bands.

The CQ Shortwave Propagation Handbook, with Cohen N4XX and Rose K6GKU. CQ Communications.

Carl Luetzelschwab K9LA

The current generation’s most accessible propagation writer. Luetzelschwab’s monthly columns and standalone papers translate the physics of the ionosphere into operating decisions: when 10M will open, why 80M is quiet tonight, what to expect from a CME. The fourth edition of his propagation reference work is the modern companion to Jacobs.

Propagation, K9LA, 4th edition. Archive and ongoing analysis at k9la.us.

Frank Donovan W3LPL

Daily DX, M–F, plus Cycle 25 analysis that called the 2023 SSN surge before most forecasters caught up. Donovan’s daily contribution is the working operator’s morning briefing — what the bands look like today and what to expect tomorrow.

José Nunes CT1BOH

Live propagation dashboard at qsl.net/ct1boh — real-time MUF, F2 layer behavior, and band-by-band openings, presented for contesters and DXers who need a decision in the next ten minutes, not the next ten hours.

Tad Cook K7RA

The ARRL Solar Update, weekly. The reliable digest of the past seven days’ solar conditions and what they mean for the week ahead. A working operator’s standing reference for solar context.

HOA · Zoning · RegulatoryThe Legal Ground Beneath the Antenna

R. Dean Straw N6BVSK 2025

Editor of the ARRL Antenna Book for five editions (17th–21st, 1993–2008) and the most recent generation’s authoritative voice on antenna zoning law for the amateur. Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur remains the working reference for operators navigating municipal, state, and federal zoning — the legal terrain that sits underneath PRB-1 and the more recent legislative efforts. Straw passed in July 2025; his work continues.

Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur, ARRL. The ARRL Antenna Book, 17th–21st editions, ARRL.

Fred Hopengarten K1VR

Practicing attorney, contester, and the legal mind behind the most accessible writing on PRB-1, CC&Rs, and the actual mechanics of getting an antenna installed in a restricted environment. Antenna Zoning is the book operators actually use when they walk into an HOA architectural review meeting.

Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur (with N6BV) and ongoing legal commentary in QST and the contesting press.

VHF / UHF / EME / Weak SignalThe Bands Above 50 MHz

Joseph Taylor K1JT

Nobel laureate (Physics, 1993), creator of the WSJT-X suite that includes FT8, FT4, JT65, MSK144, and Q65. Taylor’s work fundamentally changed weak-signal operating — the entire FT8 phenomenon, and the digital low-power DX explosion it enabled, runs on his code. We cite him whenever the question is digital modes.

Ian White GM3SEK

RSGB’s long-standing voice on VHF/UHF DX, EME technique, and station design above 50 MHz. VHF/UHF DX Book remains the European-tradition complement to American sources.

Joel Pocock W3EP

QST’s “World Above 50 MHz” columnist and the working voice on TEP, sporadic E, and the seasonal magic of 6M. The standing reference for VHF propagation behavior.

Historical FoundationsThe Shoulders We Stand On

Antenna physics did not start with us. The geometry of the vertical dipole, the mathematics of the biconical antenna, the field equations that describe radiation from any conductor — all of it comes from a lineage of work spanning more than a century. We name the foundational figures here because every modern reference eventually points back to them.

Sergei Schelkunoff SK 1992

Bell Labs theorist whose 1941 IRE paper on biconical antennas established the analytical framework underlying the discone, the bow-tie, and every broadband structure derived from them. Antennas: Theory and Practice, 1952.

Armig Kandoian SK

Inventor of the discone (US Patent 2,368,663, 1945). Federal Telecommunication Laboratories. The asymmetric biconical dipole that put broadband VHF/UHF operation within reach of working installations.

James Clerk Maxwell · Heinrich Hertz · Oliver Heaviside

The field equations, the experimental confirmation, and the operational mathematics. Every antenna ever built is an exercise in their work.