[Elecraft] RFI MP-1 antenna

[Stuart Rohre]

Steve,
As to ground plane effectiveness of a car body, that has been modeled and
discussed in both IEEE Antennas and Propagation magazine, and in ARRL's QEX,
Communications Quarterly.  It might have been in Comm Quart. back when CQ
ran it.  I think a Canadian antenna guy wrote it up.  If it was, that would
be Jack Belrose.

Anyway, the short answer is at lower frequency bands, any antenna on a car
is greatly helped if you can fold some counterpoise cut for the band into
the underframe of the car or truck.  Try for a quarter wave, and as many as
you can, but anything is better than the modern vehicle with multitude of
plastic, and probable lack of good RF materials and bonding among the body
parts.

The antenna serves a portable purpose if you need a compact vertical that
you can backpack into someplace.  If you do not need that short parts
capability, then you could build your own antenna that would be just as
good, and if full size dipole or others, more efficient.

It is a good product, well built, some of my friends have them, and they got
good service from vendor.  It is a labor of love for the QRP backpackers
community.  It is not some huge commercial company.  It fills a specific
portable antenna niche.

72,
Stuart K5KVH