[Elecraft] K1 on a sailboat

[k4zm]

Mike:

I operate my K2 on a 48' St. Francis Catamaran (The Quantum Leap) that I 
crew. For an antenna I use a 40 meter center fed dipole fed with 300 twin 
lead and terminate it in a LGP 4:1 Balun and run about 20 feet of RG58 to 
the K2.  I install it as a sloper from the top of the mast by connecting it 
to the Spinnaker halyard and pull that end to the top of the mast. (note: 
Be sure to attach a downhaul line to the halyard to be safe so that if the 
antenna breaks you can still pull the halyard back down and don't have to 
climb the mast.)  I  attach the bottom end of the dipole to the safety 
railing on the bow.  I use another piece of small line attached to the balun 
to keep the twin lead at 90 degrees from the dipole and attach it to the 
safety rail at midship.  I open a hatch in the salon area and drop the RG58 
through and connect it to the rig on the table in the salon.  I can take it 
down or set it up in about 5 minutes and using the KAT2 in the K2 it tunes 
all bands 40 -10 to a 1:1 SWR and receives and radiates very well. The 
antenna is made out of a 33' length of AC zip cord that was split and the 
insulators are pieces of plexiglass and I use light weight cord on the ends 
of the insulators..The whole antenna when coiled up can almost fit in a box 
the size of your K1.  The center insulator has two 8-32 screws and nuts and 
a wing nut on each one so that I can attach the 300 ohm twin lead. The 
dipole leads stay attached to the center insulator all the time.  By the way 
I used this antenna while motoring due to no wind on the way from St. Lucia 
to George Town, Bahams and checked into the Maritime Mobile Net running 10 
watts and they had no problem hearing me.

73
Jim Younce K4ZM
K2 SN:18