The ZS6BKW antenna is a better match for our bands than the G5RV. The method of construction and tuning is essentially the same for both antennas but the dimensions are different.
Here is the ZS6BKW antenna installed at AK6R fine tuned for the CW/FT8 frequencies on 40-20-17-12-10 meters. An excellent antenna when installed at 30 feet or higher and no tuner required avoiding the tuner losses and constant retuning. If you want to work all bands from 80-10 install an antenna tuner between the 1:1 balun and the amplifier and ignore the 39/40 switch.
Is this the best FT8 antenna? – I think so as I has made over 70,000 contacts and it still is a proven winner -Good world wide DX, easy to install, no tuner and takes full legal limit.
Here are several different 1:1 baluns you can use depending on power requirements:
Palomar Engineers RFI Filter Kit for VHF/UHF Base Radio Transceivers up to 2 GHz uses a combination of ferrite mixes useful from 1-2000 MHz.
BUY THIS KIT NOW TO SOLVE YOUR RFI/EMI NEEDS! WORKS WITH ALL BRANDS (Alinco, Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, etc.) OF HAM/COMMERCIAL RADIO RIGS
Purpose
The RFI kit is designed to be installed on your radio transceiver to reduce Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) caused by common mode current on the outside of the coax braid at the output of your radio and on the DC power supply cable.
This kit will help reduce or eliminate:
1. “Hot mic” RFI caused by poor grounding of antennas or common mode currents from linear amps feeding unbalanced (coax fed) antennas without baluns/line isolators.
2. RFI to neighbor’s electronic devices including audio/video systems, computers, telephones, garage door openers, etc.
3. RFI to your other radios, audio/video systems, computers, telephones, etc.
A side benefit is a reduction in noise floor in your receiver depending on the amount of noise being introduced by common mode currents (which are blocked/reduced by the chokes in this kit).
These chokes use a special mix of ferrite core material that is effective in suppressing radio frequency interference from Ham Radio amplifiers.
The split beads beads are easy to use, don’t require modification of the protected equipment and work in almost all cases, even when plug-in filters fail.
Included are the following chokes and installation guidelines:
DC Input: F240 Ring – 3-7 turns of DC power cable
RF Input/Output: 1/2" snap on - wrap 2 turns of RG8X size cable or 1 turn of RG-213 size cable near radio
For additional RFI suppression, use a feed line choke at the antenna to suppress common current on the coax feed line – see our store for feed line choke alternatives for use at the antenna.
If you use a linear amplifier we have RFI kits for linear amplifiers that help suppress RFI in your shack or in your neighbor’s house.
Here is the Coax Noise Filter used to suppress coax common mode currents (works for all type of antennas)
PDF of ZS6BKW at AK6R Construction Article HERE: My ZS6BKW Antenna