[Elecraft] KXAT1 with short whip antennas?

[Michael Babineau]

Leigh L Klotz, Jr." <Leigh at WA5ZNU.org> wrote :

 > The Maldol 20M whip is fine with a radial 10-16ft and a 1ft or so 
piece
 > of bus wire clipped to the top with an alligator clip, at any angle.  
I
 > worked Florida from Toronto on vacation twice with that antenna, 
acting
 > on Wayne N6KR's lead.

Likewise, I have worked France with a similar setup from Maine, but ...
as someone else mentioned one has to be very careful to avoid damaging
the PCB as the BNC is directly mounted to the board.

Martin, for portable operations you will have much better luck with a 
longer wire.
The KXAT1 was optimized for the recommended 24 to 28 ft wire and will 
load
this with a decent SWR and pretty good performance on 40M / 30M / 20M 
with a
reasonable ground. This will give you better and more consistent 
performance than
a short loaded whip.

For bike mobile I would recommend that you try a  Hamstick. They are 
cheap
and on 20M especially, performance is not too bad.

I have also had pretty good luck using a 14ft linear loaded wire 
attached to a 13 ft telescopic
fishing pole for Pedestrian mobile operations with a 30ft trailing 
counterpoise wire.

Michael VE3WMB