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KJ6ER Antennas

August 2026

Introducing the New, Improved

Marauder Parasitic Array with More

Gain, F/B and a Lower Takeoff Angle!

Dear Fellow Portable Antenna Geeks 😀

First of all, I want to thank many of you who have already taken advantage of our once per year 10% off Etsy sale on Challenger Antenna products. Remember, the sale ends this Sunday, August 30th, so if you're thinking of getting a handmade Challenger antenna or accessory, take a look today.


When I first introduced the Marauder Parasitic Array in February 2026, the Moxon-inspired portable antenna system, I never expected it to be one of my most downloaded antenna designs over the past six months. Not only has it exceeded my expectations, but the incredible number of successful deployments shared with me by builders has been outstanding.


One of the most valuable lessons I learned during my Silicon Valley high-tech career was the art of continuous improvement, also known as Kaizen, a Japanese business philosophy that many highly successful companies have adopted and implemented over many years. It teaches us that your work should never rest on its laurels but be continually evaluated to seek better and more productive results.


I am always looking to improve my antenna designs, no matter how small the enhancement. In the case of the Marauder Parasitic Array, I modified the design to make significant improvements offering +3.6 dBi gain, 21 dB front-to-back and a lower 24 degree takeoff angle. I was also able to maintain the radiation efficiency at 87%, which is excellent. Even if you have already homebrewed the original antenna, I made it easy to modify to the new design if desired.


If you do not have the time, ability or interest to build your own KJ6ER antenna, you can purchase a beautifully assembled handmade KJ6ER antenna system as well as many useful accessories on Etsy. More than 330 products have already been sold at the J-Systems Store on Etsy since June 2025 with over 80 perfect 5-star reviews from buyers.

Challenger on Etsy
Marauder Antenna
Marauder Antenna
Marauder Antenna
Marauder Antenna
J-Systems Etsy Store

The Marauder is a portable 2-element gain antenna for 20M-10M inspired by the popular Moxon antenna. The antenna was modeled in 4NEC2 to optimize its efficiency and performance for each band (one-band-at-a-time). According to the newly enhanced model, the Marauder averages +3.6 dBi gain across all 5 bands with an average 21 dB front-to-back ratio and high 87% radiation efficiency. By altering the geometry of the parasitic array, the angle of maximum radiation, or takeoff angle, has been lowered to 24 degrees. This allows the antenna to take advantage of both long haul DX potential as well as excellent continental communications. The Marauder parasitic array will be one of my go-to antennas for the solar minimum coming in 2030 at the bottom of the 11-year solar cycle.

KJ6ER Marauder

The Marauder features an end-fed bent halfwave as the driven element and an longer bent halfwave as a parasitic reflector element. These two elements are separated from each other by a non-conducting assembly which is 6” long for all bands.. While the two band-linked crosswires are identical in length, the different driven and reflector element lengths are accomplished by adjusting the two whips. The antenna has been designed to resonate at the center of each band (with the band-linked crosswires), and the whips are used for fine-tuning within each band.

KJ6ER Marauder

Whenever I consider a modification for an existing antenna design, I also must consider how easy it will be for the builders to make the changes. In the case of the Marauder, each band segment wire becomes slightly shorter, making the two band-linked crosswires 3 feet shorter overall which helps with sagging of the top crosswire on 17/20M.

KJ6ER Marauder
KJ6ER Marauder

This Month's KJ6ER Antenna Heroes

Each month I feature videos and blogs of hams sharing their own personal implementation of a KJ6ER antenna including how they built and deployed it, as well as how it performed. This month I am featuring two YouTube hams who built and deployed the original Marauder design a few months ago and had great success. I am anxious to see how the newly revised Marauder will perform for them (and you) in these increasingly tougher band conditions. Create a video on your new Marauder build, share it with me, and become a KJ6ER Antenna Hero!

John Leonardelli VE3IPS of Toronto, Ontario was so excited about the Marauder design when it was introduced last February, he built his own 10M version in the snow and tested it thoroughly. In this video, he shows off his version of the antenna. I give him a lot of credit for deploying the antenna in his chilly "winter test lab" as he put it. He was running the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) during poor band conditions but was still getting great results. I expect him to try the new Marauder soon! Subscribe to his YouTube channel.

VE3IPS Marauder Video
VE9CF Marauder Video

Randy Dunn N5ILQ of Edmond, Oklahoma is known for his tagline, "Every POTA Day is a Great Day!". In this video, he walks you through his construction of the original Marauder antenna, as well as the deployment and successful CW activation at a POTA park. He was amazed at how well the antenna performed and even got a great DX contact with Ceuta, a city in southern Spain near Morocco. I'm sure Randy will be building the new Marauder and make another video. Subscribe to his YouTube channel!

If you would like your video or blog featured in one of my upcoming newsletters, share how you are building and deploying your own KJ6ER antenna. You will get visibility with thousands of my newsletter subscribers worldwide! Send me a link to your online content about any of my antennas and I will feature it in one of my future newsletters! I am very interested in how you customized the build for your own needs either as portable or at your home QTH. I know many of these wonderful antenna videos and blogs already exist - send me a link to your favorite.

KJ6ER Heroes Program

Visit the KJ6ER Website

Your one-stop shop for everything KJ6ER can be found at my kj6er.net website! I update the site on a daily basis with all my free Antenna Designs, access to my Antenna Geeks List, links to the Etsy store offering handmade KJ6ER Antennas and Accessories, recent Press and Interviews, a list of my Favorite Ham Radio Websites, as well as a complete Monthly Newsletter Archive. I want to sincerely thank the thousands of you around the ham world who have already visited the site. I will keep improving it!

KJ6ER Website

KJ6ER Beta Testers Program

As many of you know, I introduced a KJ6ER Antennas Beta Testers program recently to encourage interested hams to get draft PDFs of my new antennas in advance, build and deploy them, and then summarize their experiences with me. If you would like to become a KJ6ER Antenna Beta Tester, send me a message. Your early review of my draft PDF, antenna design and build helps me improve the content quality in the PDF, as well as the construction and deployment process.

ABR Coaxial Cables

Why not buy yourself a well-deserved gift of a fresh set of high quality ABR coaxial cables. If you use my callsign KJ6ER as the coupon code at check-out, you will receive a nice 10%-20% discount on your total order! Get your new ABR cables today!

Until next time, keep having fun out there! Building ham radio antennas is our last homebrewing frontier and I am dedicated to helping you do so successfully! See all my free antenna design plans on my website and at the cloud links below.



If someone forwarded this email to you and want to be added to my antenna geeks email list, send me a message and you will be the first to receive new KJ6ER antenna designs and updates! I am also available to present my antennas to your Amateur Radio Club via Zoom. Let me know if they are interested! 



As always, feel free to reach out to me if you ever have any questions, I'd be happy to help you! 🙂 73 KJ6ER, Silicon Valley

My mission is to design efficient and effective portable antennas for the every-ham that focus on the optimal integration of performance (high radiation efficiency), elegance (speed and simplicity of deployment) and convenience (ease of transport and storage). These designs are always shared for free with the global amateur radio community to encourage more radio operators to homebrew their own portable antennas. 

KJ6ER Antennas Website

Cloud Drive File Links (KJ6ER):

Greg Mihran, KJ6ER

Campbell, California

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