Par End Fedz 10/20/40 Review

My first HF antenna was a ladder-line fed 40m dipole. My QTH had didn't have many trees to hold up an antenna and it was quite a chore to get it up in the air. Once I did get it up, the weight of the ladder line made it look more like a sloppy "V" than a neat "T"...and everyone knows an antenna that looks good can give you 3db gain under the right conditions :) It was also hard to string the antenna so the feedline came down in a convenient location over the house so I didn't have to run excessive lengths of coax or ladder-line to it. So I started to look for alternatives. I needed an antenna that was shorter than a full size dipole, required minimal supports, was easy to set up when portable, was well built to stand up to the elements, and performed as well (or nearly as well ) as full size dipole.

I looked into the Buddipole & Buddistick (too expensive), folded dipoles (short, but still need well placed supports),  the Miracle MMD (expensive and too long), and others, but none struck my fancy.

Par End Fedz 10/20/40 on 4ft pole.

I came across the Par Electronics End Fedz 10/20/40 and I knew that it was the antenna for me. It's nice and short at a mere 33ft., resonant on 3 bands without the use of a tuner, has a replaceable wire element that can be swapped for any band from 40m-10m, it's end fed so no need for long feedlines, coils up neatly into a Ziploc bag, it's strong and durable, and it only costs $75.

I had my Yaesu FT-817 with me while I was visiting my parents in Lakewood, CO when I received the antenna. I was excited to get it on the air and rather haphazardly strung the antenna about 6ft off the ground between two trees in the backyard. I started to trim the wire element for a minimum SWR as indicated by the meter on the FT-817. The FT-817 doesn't have a very precise internal SWR meter, but it worked well enough in the absence of a quality external meter. It took about 2 minutes to trim the wire before the SWR meter dropped down, and then I was in business! It was still early in the morning, but I spun the dial around the 20m band and stopped at 14.300 during the Maritime Mobile Net. They were taking check-in's so I called with 2.5w from the internal batteries on the FT-817 and the net controller in Washington State immediately came back to me! Needless to say I was very please with initial results from the antenna!

Back at my home I mounted the antenna to a strong hook on the eave of my house, about 8ft high, directly outside the window where I had my radio located. I only needed a short 6-8ft. length of RG-8/U coax to feed the antenna, which helped keep the cost, and feedline losses to a minimum. I then stretched the 33ft wire element into the yard and found that a random 4ft. post that the previous owners had installed was about 35ft away, and was perfect for keeping the wire element tightly stretched. Ah, isn't it good when things work out just so? In this low sloping configuration the antenna continued to amaze me and I was able to work many stations in the U.S. and DX (Aruba, Hawaii, etc.) on SSB w/ 5w or less. It didn't work very well for nearby contacts (0-200 miles) but it when I pushed it up a little higher to around 15ft, it seemed to perform better with NVIS contacts.

Par End Fedz 10/20/40 on 15ft pole

The antenna is great for Hams who don't have a lot of space to erect antennas but still need strong performance. It's also great for stealth operations because of the black wire element and flexibility of ways you can put it up. It works equally well horizontal, vertical, or sloping. I use the antenna quite a bit while camping and it only takes a few minutes to throw the antenna over a tree limb and get on the air. There are no multiples wires to get tangled up, no baluns to mess around with, no excessively long feedlines. It's simple and works great. For the price and performance, I would strongly recommend the antenna to anyone.

The Par End Fedz 10/20/40 antenna (left) with it's matching box (center) and the RG-174 feedline (right)