[Boatanchors] Hamstick question

[John J. McDonough]

Ray

The necessary length seems to change pretty easily, probably because in the
car so many things change frequently.  You do need to be careful, though,
not to let the whip fall too far down into the bottom of the antenna as it
is possible to cut some internal wires.

Best approach I've found is to put about 2-3" of the whip down into the
base, then find the resonant frequency with an antenna analyzer.  If it's
megahertz off, then I'll move it an inch or so.  When you get into the band,
though, very small changes move the resonance quite a bit (at least on my
roller skate which doesn't provide much of a counterpoise).

Until I'm pretty close, I find looking at the SWR in a few places to be
pretty tedious.  Seems better to sweep the neighborhood with the MFJ and
base my adjustments on the frequency of minimum SWR.

I've put colored tape on the base of each of my hamsticks, and matching tape
on the whip just where I want it to be, so I can reassemble it quickly after
being stored in the trunk.  Sometimes I might need a small adjustment, but
then I'm close enough that the SWR meter in the rig does the trick.

A friend brought over some imitation hamsticks to tune, and these behaved
quite differently than the real thing.  There are a few brands out there.
For a while several of them called themselves hamsticks, but I think now
there is only one ... must be the lawyers got to work.  In any event, they
look similar but are quite different antennas.

72/73 de WB8RCR    http://www.qsl.net/wb8rcr
didileydadidah     QRP-L #1446 Code Warriors #35

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ray Friess" <rayfri at highstream.net>
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; <forsale-swap at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 3:41 PM
Subject: [Boatanchors] Hamstick question


> This is actually a technical question ... but thought someone might have
> the answer.
> I have a 20 meter hamstick that I'm getting ready to tune.  The stinger
> is presently longer
> than the stinger on the 40 meter hamstick I have been using for mobile
> operation.
>
> Does anyone have a suggestion for a good starting length for the stinger
> on the 20 meter version?
> There is no cutting chart that comes with a new Hamstick, so I thought
> I'd ask the gang here
> if anyone has experience with one....
>
> Ray  wa7itz
>
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