Antennas might be the most important part of your portable ham radio setup — and also the thing most of us overthink, misunderstand, rebuild, argue about, and occasionally blame when the bands are just being rude.

This week on Brew & Activate, I’m joined by Matt from Reliance Antennas to talk about everything antennas.

We’ll dig into portable antenna setups, POTA operating, end fed antennas, random wires, transformers, tuners, coax, chokes, antenna testing, field reliability, and what really matters when you’re trying to get on the air from a park.

We’ll also talk about the Reliance Antennas brand, how Matt designs and builds antennas for real-world use, and what operators should think about when choosing or building their own antenna system.

Whether you’re brand new to HF, getting into Parks on the Air, or you’ve been ...