Half-Square Antenna: 3.6dBi and Low Takeoff Angle

In this video, I head out to the park to build and test the Half-Square antenna. This simple full-wavelength wire antenna has some impressive features: about 3.6 dBi of gain broadside and a low takeoff angle, making it excellent for DX. I’ll cover the basic configuration, show some modeling results, set it up in the field, and compare it to a vertical using the RBN and KiwiSDR. Finally, I’ll put it on the air and see how it performs with real contacts. The Half-Square consists of two vertical ¼-wavelength wires connected by a ½-wavelength horizontal wire. It can be built as a simple current-fed monoband antenna or as a voltage-fed multiband antenna using a 49:1 unun. Learn more about portable antennas: https://portable-antennas.com Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:45 What is the Half-Square? 1:09 Two ways to feed 2:06 Modeling 8:40 Deployment 10:50 SWR Readings 13:19 RX vs Quarter-wave 14:30 RBN Test 16:51 KiwiSDR Comparison 18:55 Activation 19:46 Conclusion