[Elecraft] Miracle Whip concensus

[Larry Cahoon]

Vince,

I think you have to very different location problems.  Motels and summer 
cottages.  Seems to me you can usually do a lot more at a summer cottage 
than you can at most motels.  So think in terms of what you can do 
depending on where you are.  All antennas will get out, just some much 
better than others.  Running 5 watts makes it harder, that is all.

If you have to use a short antenna, stick to the higher bands.  The size 
constraints are not so bad there.  I stay away from 80 meters for that 
reason, usually preferring 20 meters and up.  The Miracle Whip and the 
Outbacker suffer in comparison to a Hustler as they effectively put the 
"lumped inductance lower on the antenna.  You want that as high as you can 
get it.  The antenna will perform better. For a lot less money than either 
the Miiacle Whip or the Outbacker you can get a hustler coil for a few 
bands and a mast.

If you are sold on a vertical, I'd go the hustler route, get a mast a long 
as you can put up and trim the whip to get the SWR where you want it.  I 
use two foot aluminum sections for that kind of stuff.  I can just put 
together as many sections as I want.  You will still need some kind of 
radials.  All the mobile antennas rely on the car body to serve that 
purpose, so you need to replace that with something.

That is not to say the Outbacker will not get out. I've got one. I still 
use it around town for it ease of getting on and off the car without having 
to guy the thing.  I've got 2xWAS mobile to mobile with the thing (at 100 
watts).  It does work.

At least for the summer cottage, I would think of getting one of the 20 
foot fishing poles that are out there or the DK9SQ 30 ft. mast and use that 
to support the center of an invented V or a dipole. I've done that and tied 
the mast to the deck of the cottage and run the wire out as far as I can, 
tied ropes to the end to go even further and stuck the ends of the ropes on 
a tent peg in the ground.  Feed that with ladder line. That an a tuner will 
cover a number of bands.  And unless you are at the beach it will usually 
do a better job for you.

73 de Larry...........WD3P in MD
http://www.qsl.net/wd3p/