[Elecraft] Antenna for Travels?

[Thomas Beaudry]

>> should I take the MP-1 or an "Isotron" antenna?
>
> Why not a simple wire dipole, if such an antenna can
> be installed where you are going?

That's the catch.  It may not be installable where he's going.  The 
largest dipole I could install at my place in San Salvador (YS1) would 
be a 20M dipole.  That wouldn't be too bad since I could survive with 
daytime only ops.  But I can't get to the roof because of the security 
installed to keep out thieves.  (Lots and lots of razor wire everyplace 
imaginable.)

So I use a PAC-12 vertical.  Supposedly in a shoot-out it was only 1 db 
below a 1/4 wave vertical with a good ground plane.  I built my own but 
the creator has started selling them commercially for US$85 for one 
band.  US$10 for each additional band.

I'm not sure I believe the shoot-out results.  My dipoles at the 
in-laws' in the country definitely beat it.  But if I limited my 
operating to when I was at their place, I'd only be able to get on one 
or two weekends every month.

If I was going someplace where I didn't know what I'd be able to put 
up, I'd take along both.  A compact vertical and the makings for 
dipoles.

My two cents...

-- 
Thomas M. Beaudry
k8la / ys1ztm
K2 # 3422