May Day, Coax Trays, and the Annual Return of Springtime RF Reality
This issue goes out on the first of May — not as a manifesto, but as a seasonal observation. By now, the garden is waking up, ladders are coming out, feedlines are being rerouted, and somebody is once again wondering whether rolling up spare coax has ruined the antenna.
Spring has a way of pushing radio amateurs back outdoors, back onto roofs, and back into the yearly rituals of bonding, grounding, tuning, and quietly distrusting old myths. That makes May 1 a perfectly good day for a newsletter like this: less ideology, more coax, fewer slogans, and a healthy respect for lightning season.
So this issue is about exactly that: spring maintenance, recurring SWR folklore, tuner symmetry myths, and the annual reminder that RF systems do not fix themselves.
Rolling Up Coax Is Not the Problem
A useful correction for one of the most persistent feedline superstitions.
The presence of a coil is not automatically the problem — context still matters.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/rolling-up-coax-is-not-the-problem
Symmetric Tuner Network Does Not Automatically Mean Symmetric Currents
A symmetrical schematic can look comforting right up until the actual current paths refuse to cooperate.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/symmetric-tuner-network-does-not-automatically-mean-symmetric-currents
A Symmetric Tuner Still Often Needs a 1:1 Current Balun with Open-Wire
Another reminder that geometry on paper and balance in the real installation are not the same thing.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/a-symmetric-tuner-still-often-needs-a-1-1-current-balun-with-open-wire
Why 10 Meters Becomes the Problem Child in a 40–10 m Off-Center-Fed Dipole
A practical look at why one band can misbehave badly even when the rest of the antenna seems perfectly acceptable.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/why-10-meters-becomes-the-problem-child-in-a-40-10-m-off-center-fed-dipole
EFHW Core Magic
A timely dismantling of the idea that ferrite cores somehow turn compromise installations into broadband miracles.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/efhw-core-magic
Lightning Protection Is a System, Not a Switch
As soon as the season changes, this becomes urgent again:
surge protection only works when the full system is designed to work together.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/lightning-protection-is-a-system-not-a-switch
Lightning, Antennas, and the Myth of “Attracting” Strikes
A good example of how intuitive-sounding language often distorts what is really happening around tall conductors and storms.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/lightning-antennas-and-the-myth-of-attracting-strikes
TinySA, and Mythical 50 Ohms
Measurement tools are useful right up to the point where people start assigning them magical certainty they never promised.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/tinysa-and-mythical-50-ohms
Why the Blanket “High SWR Means Derate the Balun” Claim Falls Apart
An important reminder that power handling is not decided by one number alone, no matter how convenient that would be.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/why-the-blanket-high-swr-means-derate-the-balun-claim-falls-apart
The ARRL Antenna Book, SWR, and the Myths That Refuse to Die
Even respected references can become vehicles for oversimplified takeaways once the nuance gets stripped away.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/the-arrl-antenna-book-swr-and-the-myths-that-refuse-to-die
The Myth of SWR Panic
A familiar seasonal condition: the meter moves, panic follows, and the wrong conclusion arrives first.
🔗 https://shop.rf.guru/pages/the-myth-of-swr-panic
Prefer to watch the measurements, hear the reasoning, and skip the annual spring crop of RF folklore?
Mark covers many of the same themes with calm explanations, practical demonstrations, and a welcome shortage of magical thinking.
🔗 Watch the featured videos from our collaboration
If this issue leaves you slightly less nervous about rolled coax, slightly more skeptical of “perfectly symmetric” tuner claims, and slightly more serious about lightning season — good.
That is a very reasonable way to start May.
73,
Joeri – ON6URE
Founder – RF.Guru
https://rf.guru/