A simple Wire Antenna for Preppers

[Paul]

Nice one LS.
If you want to make something a bit more "bullet proof", then you can add a thing the ham world call an ugly balun.
It's simply a 4" (ish) wide bit of palstic pipe with 18 feet of coax wound round it.
It's not hard to make and makes the aerial tuning even easier.
http://www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html

Mine is in the attic. The wires for the aerial itself poke out through the eaves and run down the roof in line with the tiles.

IF you are working with a CB set, start off with 9 foot lengths of wire as the aerial. You'll be pleasently surprised when you test it with a simple SWR meter. The worse I've ever recorded was 2:1 without tuning the aerial which you do by cutting back the "arms" of wires 1" at a time.
Across the EU range of channels and the UK set, my aerial never exceeds 1.1:1 across the whole range so 98% of my power is leaving the aerial.

ATU, AMU's or whatever are ok. Their main job is to kid the rig that you are using a really good aerial. I worry about that as a rubbish aerial will still be a rubbish aerial and will cause radio interference on your neighbours TV in extreme situations.
Take your time tuning your aerial at home, it does pay off.

Paul