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When I got my amateur radio license at ten years old, communication was still very much a weak spot for me. I was terrified of having a speaking role in the school play, and presentations in front of my class still made me exceptionally nervous.

Now, I really enjoy public speaking, and I have gotten significantly better at it—almost entirely thanks to amateur radio. The hobby has taught me how to communicate articulately and precisely, something that no other extracurricular activity or experience has done.

While I’ve overcome most of my challenges with communication, many of my peers still have issues with good communication skills. As a result, how young people communicate is a frequently discussed topic among older generations. I’ve heard these questions and similar examples countless times:

• “How do young people communicate?”
• “The Snapchat photos they send each other—do those count as communication?”
• “Do young people communicate or do they just sit on their phones?”

While I can’t fully endorse all of my generation’s communication habits (I don’t think I’ll ever catch on to some of the current slang), I must say that despite the basic nature of some of these efforts (for example, half-face Snapchat photos and simply saying “six-seven” accompanied by the hand gesture, of course), they are still forms of communication. But in today’s world, verbal communication remains a very important skill regardless of your age. Amateur radio gives young people the opportunity to engage in more mature and coherent communication.

Part of the problem with young people’s communication is that when interacting with each other, they are (to an extent) forced to fit into the mold of someone their age. They feel like they must use the vocabulary and communication methods of their age group. If they do not, they will almost certainly be made fun of. More importantly, they won’t be able to effectively get their message across.

Amateur radio provides an environment in which young people can communicate with adults and practice articulating their point without using the typical slang words that are necessary in their everyday lives. It allows young people to learn how to communicate by treating the youth of the hobby like adults right out of the gate. For example, young people in amateur radio have numerous opportunities to present at events–opportunities that many other young people do not have.

During my last few years of high school, I noticed that many of my classmates were scared to have a one-on-one conversation with a teacher or even just raise their hands to talk in front of the class. This fear disappears slightly when it comes to sending an email, but a whole new set of problems arise. Many young people today struggle to communicate in contexts that require a protocol to be followed, or that require formal speech to be used. This is where amateur radio can play a role in helping improve these deficits. When having an on-air QSO, the core of the contact is always the same: signal report, location, maybe a name or a number, and then the open opportunity to take the conversation a bit further. This “script” builds the connection between effective and efficient communication, which helps teach young people how to implement that in their daily lives.

Young people can also learn how to interpret social cues from simple on-air interactions. Getting on the air and making contacts itself can be incredibly intimidating at first. To ragchew with someone, you need to be able to read social cues without the benefit of body language. This can be challenging, especially when you’re trying to determine whether you should continue the conversation or cut it off. After getting on-air experience, though, reading subtle social cues becomes almost second nature. These skills can also be applied to in-person social interactions, making them even easier with the addition of body language clues.

With all of this in mind, the next time you criticize a young person’s communication skills, remind yourself that they’re still learning. The criticism may not be entirely wrong, but it’s directed only at young people. Unlike the generations before ours, the culture of communication does not revolve around “proper” communication—rather, it’s centered on efficiency and, occasionally, pop culture. Amateur radio provides an environment in which we can practice communication without screens or emojis. Our energy is much better spent making sure we maintain this environment and keep it inviting to youth rather than criticizing how young people communicate.

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There is so much talk in our hobby about making that rare DX or a faraway contact using resonant beams and vertical antennas. While that’s great—and I think most of us find these contacts exhilarating—there are so may rabbit holes in this hobby beyond DXing. As I often say about amateur radio, if you can’t find your area of interest, you better check your pulse.

One of my rabbit holes is highlighted every year on the fourth Saturday in April. That’s when the Ohio Section ARES sponsors NVIS Day.

You may have read my articles on EmComm—one of my amateur radio passions. Like many other niches, EmComm has some quirks about it that require unique equipment and skills. We’re not trying to reach around the world; we’re making contacts around the corner.

The antenna is at the heart of what’s different about the EmComm arena. You’re longer looking for a very low angle of takeoff but rather a steep takeoff angle. Enter the NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) antenna. Note: “Near vertical” refers to the radiation angle, not the antenna configuration.

The idea here is first-mile communications. That means getting messages and traffic “out to” and “in from” a non-affected area to the affected area of a bad day incident. This may be a state or regional relay station, your state Emergency Operations Center, or a National Traffic System net. In this situation, we’re not talking about getting the signal to the farthest station. It’s about getting it to the “right” station.

I often explain NVIS as being like a garden hose. If you take the hose and point the nozzle just a little above horizontal, you can, with great accuracy, spray your little sister sitting under a tree with her friends 35 feet away. However, if you take that same hose and nozzle and turn it 90 degrees vertically, the results are vastly different. Now everyone within ten feet gets wet, but your sister and her friends remain dry.

In the ham radio world, it works like this. I have always used horizontal wire antennas, usually in a sloper configuration of some sort. They have served me very well. I am able to check into state traffic nets, regional MARS nets, and even national CAP nets. I can pretty easily get DX contacts in North, Central and South America, Europe, and Western Africa. But Southeast Asia and VK land have eluded me.

If you’ve been reading my articles, you know I recently erected a DX Commander Signature 18 Nebula eXtreme HF Multiband Vertical Antenna. The first contact I made on it was an Australian station. Then reality set in.  Time came that day to check into the Ohio Single Side Band Net, which is a part of the National Traffic System. Opening time came and went and I could hear nothing. I could not hear a single station in the state of Ohio.

It hit home: Most of my day-to-day operating was done using NVIS! Don’t get me wrong—I am super glad to have the DX Commander and will continue to enjoy making those DX contacts with it, but it must be an addition to my NVIS system. It’s like that wrench you use less regularly but could not do without.

So this year for NVIS day, we decided to focus on two styles of antenna. We would erect the DX Engineering 8040 NVIS and the Alpha Antenna HF/VHF/UHF MagLoop EmComm. We were able to electrically separate them far enough away to have two stations operate without any complications.

The Alpha went up quite easily and worked very well. Within minutes, we were able to start making contacts. It was easily tuned, and some new loop users were able to see the benefits of its directionality. Win number one!

The DX Engineering antenna was a kit, so it took longer to erect. But being a kit, there was much opportunity for discussion and education. I will say this: If you are considering this antenna, just account for the sheer size of the footprint it has on the ground, especially the 80M dipole portion. I would say lay out an area 150 feet by 150 feet.

Being two resonant dipole antennas on one mast at 90 degrees to each other, it is very efficient. But you have to be willing to take the time to properly tune it. This is the part very few people enjoy, but it will provide you with years of enjoyment if you don’t take shortcuts. An antenna analyzer like the RigExpert STICK-PRO makes it much easier to tune the elements.

When it was all said and done, the DX Engineering antenna was erected and tuned. After lunch, final tuning was done and it was ready for use. Another nice feature of this antenna is that if your state’s EmComm plan is for, let’s say, 40 and 20M, you just tune the two dipoles for those bands. This is a great- performing antenna for making contacts all over the Midwest and beyond.  Win number two!

When you start learning about antenna theory, antenna building can become addicting. I encourage you to start experimenting with building your own antennas. Wire antennas are extremely inexpensive to build, and you can learn a ton.

Until next time, 73 de AC8OW.

The post Ohio NVIS Day 2026: A Tale of Two Different but Effective Antennas appeared first on OnAllBands.

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Antennas may look simple—just a piece of metal in the air—but they are surprisingly sensitive to their surroundings. Nearby metal objects and trees can dramatically affect how an antenna performs, sometimes improving it, sometimes hurting it, and occasionally turning a perfectly good antenna into an expensive yard ornament.

Radio waves don’t exist in isolation. Every antenna interacts with its environment. Houses, gutters, vehicles, power lines, aluminum siding, steel towers, wet leaves, and even your neighbor’s rusty trampoline all become part of the antenna’s “neighborhood.” Whether those neighbors are helpful or troublesome depends on distance, size, conductivity, frequency, and a bit of radio magic that sometimes seems suspiciously close to black magic.

Metal Objects: Friends, Enemies & Uninvited Participants

Metal is usually the most significant environmental influence on an antenna. Conductive materials interact strongly with radio frequency energy. In many cases, nearby metal effectively becomes part of the antenna system whether you intended it or not.

A metal object near an antenna can reflect, absorb, or reradiate RF energy. This can change the antenna’s radiation pattern, feedpoint impedance, and resonant frequency. Sometimes the effects are mild. Sometimes they are dramatic enough to make an antenna behave as if a committee designed it.

A classic example is the mobile HF antenna mounted on a car. The vehicle body actually serves as part of the antenna system, acting as a ground plane or counterpoise. Remove the metal car body and performance tanks. In this case, nearby metal is beneficial.

But metal can also create problems. Suppose a vertical antenna is mounted too close to a metal gutter or tower leg. The antenna may become detuned because the nearby conductor alters the electromagnetic field around it. The resonant frequency shifts, SWR changes, and the radiation pattern may be distorted. An antenna tuned perfectly in the driveway suddenly behaves differently when installed next to the house.

This is why antenna manufacturers often recommend a minimum spacing from metal objects. A few feet can matter, especially on higher frequencies like VHF and UHF where wavelengths are shorter. At 440 MHz, a quarter wavelength is only about 6.7 inches. A nearby metal pipe or railing can have a surprisingly large effect.

HF antennas are affected as well, although the suggested distances are greater because the wavelengths are longer. A 40-meter dipole near a metal roof may experience pattern distortion, increased losses, or strange directional behavior. You might think your antenna is omnidirectional until all stations from the west disappear into the ether.

Towers & Support Structures

Ironically, antennas are often mounted on metal towers, which themselves affect performance. Tower interaction is a well-known issue in antenna design.

For example, a Yagi antenna mounted too close to a tower may develop asymmetrical radiation patterns because the tower reradiates energy. The boom-to-tower spacing matters. This is why large contest stations carefully engineer antenna placement and sometimes use nonconductive mounting sections.

At VHF and UHF, small changes in geometry can significantly alter gain and front-to-back ratio. That beautiful computer-modeled radiation pattern may vanish once real-world metal is introduced.

Of course, hams have a traditional engineering solution for this problem: “Let’s put it up and see what happens.”

Trees: Nature’s RF Sponge

Trees are more complicated than metal. They are not highly conductive like aluminum or steel, but they contain water, sap, minerals, and organic material that interact with RF energy. The result depends heavily on frequency and moisture content.

At HF frequencies, trees often have modest effects unless the antenna is literally buried in dense foliage. Many wire antennas operate reasonably well in trees. In fact, trees have supported countless dipoles, end-fed wires, loops, and experimental contraptions since the dawn of amateur radio. Entire generations of hams have considered pine trees to be legitimate antenna accessories.

However, trees are not invisible to RF. Leaves and branches absorb some energy, especially when wet. Water is particularly lossy at higher frequencies. After rainfall, antennas in trees may show measurable changes in tuning and signal strength.

At VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies, trees become much more problematic. Dense foliage can attenuate signals significantly. A line of wet trees between two 70-centimeter stations can significantly weaken signals. Microwave operators regard trees with roughly the same affection sailors have for icebergs.

Seasonal Changes

An antenna system may behave differently throughout the year. Ever notice how UHF handheld radios work great in winter and mysteriously worse in summer? Leaves are often the culprit. A fully leafed-out forest can absorb and scatter RF energy surprisingly well.

In winter, bare branches contain less moisture and have less surface area, which can slightly improve signal propagation. In spring and summer, fresh leaves and increased sap content can increase RF absorption. This sometimes leads operators to believe their antenna has stopped working. In reality, nature redecorated the propagation path.

Rain adds another layer of complexity. Wet trees can detune nearby antennas and increase signal attenuation. If your SWR changes every time it rains, the antenna may be too close to foliage.

Multipath & Reflections

Both metal objects and trees can create multipath propagation. Signals bounce off surfaces and arrive at the receiving antenna slightly delayed and from different directions.

At HF, this effect is usually minor because ionospheric propagation dominates. For VHF and UHF, however, multipath can cause flutter, distortion, fading, or signal cancellation. For those of you old enough to remember analog TV broadcasts, they were often subject to “ghosting,” a form of multipath interference caused by signals arriving at the antenna via two or more paths with different delays. 

Urban environments filled with buildings and metal structures are notorious for this. Mobile operators often notice signals changing dramatically over just a few feet of movement. One spot gives full quieting; another has marginal reception.

Trees can contribute to scattering, especially in windy conditions. Moving branches create constantly changing reflection and absorption patterns.

Can Metal & Trees Ever Help?

Surprisingly, yes.

Metal reflectors are intentionally used in antenna design. Yagis depend on carefully positioned metal elements to shape radiation patterns and increase gain. Ground screens improve vertical antennas. Reflectors behind antennas can effectively direct RF energy.

Trees can also be useful support structures. A well-positioned dipole in a tall tree often outperforms a poorly placed antenna in the clear. Height usually matters more than perfection.

Many excellent HF antennas have lived happily among trees for decades. Understand that nearby foliage may slightly reduce efficiency or alter tuning but doesn’t necessarily ruin performance.

Sometimes operators obsess over minor environmental effects while ignoring much larger issues such as feedline loss, poor grounding, or insufficient antenna height. A mediocre antenna high in a tree often beats a perfect antenna mounted six feet above the ground next to aluminum patio furniture.

Minimizing Problems

Several practical steps can reduce environmental interaction:

• Keep antennas as far from large metal objects as practical
• Avoid running antennas parallel and very close to metal gutters or siding
• Use nonconductive support materials when possible
• Maintain clearance from dense foliage, especially at VHF/UHF
• Retune antennas after permanent installation if necessary
• Expect seasonal variation in antennas installed near trees
• Prioritize antenna height and placement over EZNEC perfection

And perhaps most importantly: test in the real world. Antenna modeling software is useful, but reality is always best.

Nothing’s Perfect

Nearby metal and trees affect antennas, sometimes dramatically. Metal objects can detune antennas, distort radiation patterns, and alter impedance. Trees can absorb RF energy, especially when wet, and become increasingly troublesome at higher frequencies.

Yet amateur radio history is filled with successful stations operating under imperfect conditions. Antennas have been installed in attics, forests, apartment balconies, and improbable backyard arrangements that appear to violate both physics and zoning regulations.

The ideal antenna site—a wide-open field with perfect conductivity and no obstructions—isn’t always available to us. Most operators learn to work with real-world compromises. In fact, much of amateur radio involves discovering how to make imperfect antennas work surprisingly well.

And if all else fails, remember the oldest antenna troubleshooting technique in existence: stare thoughtfully at the antenna, change absolutely nothing, and announce, “I think it’s working better now.”

The post Ham Radio Tech: Do Nearby Metal & Trees Significantly Affect Antennas? appeared first on OnAllBands.

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