[Elecraft] Buddipoles and KX1

[Mike Morrow]

Craig wrote:

>I will respectfully disagree.  You have made one major assumption
>that is almost never true - namely that the BuddiPole vertical is
>used without an adequate ground system.
>
>Most everyone I know (including me) who uses the BuddiPole as a
>vertical uses a single quarter wave elevated radial or counterpoise wire.

I would not consider the grounding system that you describe as "adequate"
for an HF vertical.

>This costs less than $2 and weighs a couple of ounces.  It offers VERY
>efficient performance.

The wire is cheap, just like a dipole, but how much was that vertical?
I don't know your definition of "efficient performance."  And if a length
of wire (which must be altered for band changes) is going to be spun out at 
a site, why not just go with a much better performing, much cheaper half-wave
dipole.  A vertical with a radial wire incorporates almost all of the 
disadvantages of both a vertical and a dipole, at a much greater cost!

>Indeed, for DX work, its lower radiation angle will vastly outperform
>the horizontal doublets unless they are very high.

Theoretically, yes, though not "vastly."  But real world tests do not
support that in the case of the poorly grounded vertical.  I consider
one radial to be a poor ground for an HF vertical.

I base my outlook on more than 35 years of portable HF antenna trials at
campsites in various parts of the USA.  This is my *primary* interest
in ham radio.  I often erect at least two antenna types at a site for 
side-by-side comparisons.  That is the *only* way one can determine how
one antenna performs against another under otherwise identical site and
band conditions.

I have never used any vertical that performed, over *any* signal path, within
three S-units of the dipole, except when my vertical was installed on the
salt-water beach at Edisto Is. State Park in South Carolina.  More typically,
the vertical's performance deficit was closer to five S-units.  On the other
hand, I've worked 40 countries as far as Russia, South Africa, Australia,
and Japan on 20 meters on a single weekend with a dipole that was on average
less than six feet above ground.

One can make contacts with even the poorest of antennas, and not realize how
poor the performance is.  Side-by-side tests out in the boonies is the real
test of relative performance.  Nothing beats that!

73
Mike / KK5F