[Elecraft] Re: portable antenna

[Albers]

Joe, W2KJ wrote:

Has anyone used the antenna advertised on the site below???

http://stores.ebay.com/The-Bell-Imel-Group-LLC

Would appreciate any reports on the performance of this antenna by Elecraft 
K2, K1, KX1 ops using the internal tuner in these rigs.

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I bought one and found it loaded OK on 40, 30 and 20 with my KX-1, and I 
deployed it as an inverted L while camping in Utah year before last, and 
made some contacts. Have not tried it since I installed the 80m mod in my 
KX-1. Of course, the important thing about antennae is not the SWR (as 
discussed in earlier thread, resistors and dummy loads give great SWR 
results) but how well it performs. This, unfortunately, is very hard to 
assess objectively. I do have the impression that my current favorite 
portable antenna, which is 51 ft of wire with a 51 ft counterpoise -all made 
by un-zipping a spool of Radio Shack speaker wire (zip cord) works better - 
and the KX-1 ATU loads it nicely on all 4 bands.

BTW, you can make a copy of the no-counterpoise antenna very easily, if you 
can find a 50 ft length of nice heavy duty (foam insulated) 300 ohm twin 
lead. Simply cut one of the two conductors at the center (i.e., 25 ft mark) 
and strip away one 25 ft piece. So you end up with:
=============-----------------
rig   25'                 |       25'             |

re-draw this as an inverted L and lo and behold, it looks like a zepp.

73
Ray K2HYD
KX-1  608