[Elecraft] Buddipole Antenna and K2

[Edward Ringel]

Hi Paul,

 

I have used a commercial buddipole with the K2 over the course of the
late summer several times.  The buddipole is beautifully made and goes
together quite easily. It is a piece of cake to put up and take down. It
is light enough to support on a painter's pole and an old camera tripod
with some very light guying. Using an Alinco TX-70, which has half the
ears of the K2, I easily made several transatlantic contacts from my QTH
in Maine.

 

However, it isn't magic. Any shortened dipole, be it a wire with a wound
inductor or metal arms with a wound inductor, has significant
limitations. The device is sharply tuned, with a usable bandwith that is
narrow on all the bands except the highest (where the size compromise is
the least pronounced.) Since it is a high Q antenna, it is very
sensitive to surrounding metal and earth; I've watched SWR change simply
by hoisting the little guy back up his pole.  It is physically small,
reducing cross sectional size and reducing signal sensitivity. Finally,
by definition it is a less efficient radiator.  Bandwith can be
partially dealt with a little by using a matching network (tuner) but
you still are left with the fact that you are matched to a high Q device
with the limitations I described. I have used both a manual tuner and
the KAT100. However, clearly the most important tool I use in "tuning"
my buddipole is my trusty MFJ 259B Antenna analyzer.

 

That said, I really enjoy my buddipole. On a nice day, I'll set it up in
the yard and use it in preference to my indoor shack. It is light enough
and small enough to hoist up and down the pole without difficulty, and
when I change bands or move more than 20-30 KHz on one of the wider
bands I check where things are at with the '259. Not a big deal.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ed AA1WZ



--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment.  Attachments are not allowed.  To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html  ---