[Elecraft] K1 and Buddipole

[Mike McCoy]

While I have a K2 I would think the results would be the pretty much the
same between a K1 & K2.

I built a homebrew Buddipole and think it's a good performer for what it
is... a collection of PVC tubing, speaker wire and Radioshack whips.  I use
a painters extension pole (6' collapsed, 18' extended) I picked up at home
depot to get it up in the air.  The nice thing is it breaks down into a
handful of 2' sections which is handy for travelling/portable ops (instead
of dealing with the rats nests that long hanks of wire usually end up
being).

Even in fair conditions I can work the Western hemisphere with ease on 20 &
17 but beyond that propagation has to be just right to work any real DX.
Even though it is a loaded dipole I haven't noticed any directionality by
rotating the elements.

One caveat: I've never had to try it but I imagine the initial setup without
an antenna analyzer would be a PITA as different locations require different
'setting's and even moving one whip tip in/out by 1/2 its length can
radically change the SWR. The tiny little Autek RF-1 is perfect for the job.
I assemble the antenna with the painter pole 'collapsed', tune the whips
using the RF-1 (a bit below where I want to operate as the freq changes 'up'
a bit when the pole is raised full height). I then raise the painter pole to
max height, anchor the pole to a support using velcro straps, hit 'tune' on
the K2 and and voila! Sounds involved but from the time I start putting it
together until I'm on the air is about 15-20 minutes (of which most is just
putting it together).

For a few hours work at a cost of about $20 (retail ;) it's well worth the
effort. OTOH, assuming the performance is roughly similar between the
homebrew & commercial Buddipole I'm not sure its performance warrants the
extra $200 or so (minimum) for the commercial version (unless asthetics is
important ;). I'd probably recommend building the homebrew version (
http://www.qsl.net/w3ff/ ) to see if you like it before spending big bucks
for the commercial version.

73,
Mike K5PU

----- Original Message -----
From: <tlogan7@cox.net>
To: "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2002 9:47 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] K1 and Buddipole


> If anyone is using a K1 with a Buddipole, I would be curious to know how
you
> like the combination; what height you've been using the Buddipole at; and
> what results you've been getting. Thanks for any feedback. 73/Tim NZy\7C
>