[Elecraft] "Quick & Dirty" Antenna?

[Ron D' Eau Claire]

> At 08:05 4/29/2002 -0400, kb4utz@bellsouth.net wrote:
> >Good morning,
> >
> >I'm going to be taking a group of high schoolers camping later this week
> >(at the Great Smokies National Park) and was thinking about taking along
> >the K2. However, I haven't yet built an antenna to take along on camping
> >trips (my trips are usually in a Coleman pop-up or tents... this
> is going
> >to be a "tents" trip). I also don't have much free time between now and
> >when we leave on the trip so I can't devote much time to fabricating the
> >antenna. So...

Dave, K9DC, has a great suggestion, Kirby. There's absolutely nothing
"magic" about the various portable antennas that a simple wire can't
duplicate. The purpose behind most of the antennas is to provide some
convenient feature, such as a mast to use where nothing above your head is
available to hang a wire onto. The downside of such antennas is that they
are usually physically smaller than most simple wires, so they end up being
less efficient.

One time I worked a number of stations on 40 meters end-feeding a 30 foot
wire 8 feet off of the ground - and that was running 2 watts out with an
HW-8, almost 2 S-units weaker than the usual K2.

Then there's the famous fellow who worked DXCC by loading up the fire escape
outside his New York apartment window. He wasn't QRP, but the effectiveness
of that fire escape was... uh.... "inescapable" (sorry 'bout that).

A 1/4 wave long wire connected to the case is a very good idea, as Dave
points out. The far end of this wire might be "hot" with r-f so be sure is
it insulated and keep it away from curious hands. It will make loading
easier and improve the efficiency of most 'random wires'.

I recall a post by Eric or Wayne who clipped an antenna lead to the aluminum
frame of a picture window one day and proceeded to make QSO's with his K2.

Ron AC7AC