End fed halfwave antennas

My friend Eric, WL7CMT keeps telling me about this interesting Antenna, Par EndFedz he is using in Alaska, which is a end fed halfwave resonant antenna.

Of course I told him that I think this thing is voodoo and that it can not work as advertised. However, people using the antenna are remarkably excited, no, extatic about how it works on their eHam reviews which made me curious.

There are only few ways to build a circuit that would transform the transceiver impedance of 50 Ohm into the high impedance required, they are either transformers or resonant circuits.

As the antenna is not sold in Germany I made an attempt with a resonant circuit and was very much surprised with the results on 20m. Booming signals  at S9+ all over Europe plus audible ones from VK, ZL, YB. EA, 7Z and others confirm 59 signals.

As sceptical as I was, this thing appears to work! Plus, it has an excellent form factor for portable ops. Once I have experimented more with this, I will post some more details.