[Elecraft] K3

[Paul Christensen]

> Can someone recommend a portable push up pole that I can use for the 
> center
> insulator and then come down in an inverted V  Thanks Phil

I have an interest in a well-designed telescoping pole as well, preferably 
20-25 ft on a stable tripod.

In thinking this through for a while, I've also decided on an inverted "V" 
for field use.  The Vee will be fed with 300-ohm ladder line and line length 
will be adjusted pursuant to W5DXP's data to present a near 1:1 VSWR on all 
bands from 40m-10m

http://www.w5dxp.com/notuner.htm

In doing so, I've decided to prepare pre-cut line lengths with banana plug 
connections in lengths of 16', 8', 4', 2', and 1'.   Changing line length 
does not change the 300-ohm VSWR, but it radically affects the end-of-line Z 
and the 50-ohm VSWR.  And so, by manipulating these five plug-in line 
sections, a near 1:1 50-ohm VSWR is possible without a tuner and system 
losses are minimized.  A 1:1 current balun will form the transition between 
the switched ladder line sections and coax.

I thought about using the Budidipole system or one of its variants, and 
finally decided that I could attain better 40m-10m efficiency in the field 
by (1) changing line length; and (2) using a trap-less half-wave antenna 
length on the lowest frequency -- and make simple "plug-in" changes on the 
ground rather than by changing taps up on a telescoping mast.  Moreover, 
since there's a need to tether a 20-25 ft. telescoping mast anyway, it makes 
sense to use the Vee as two of the three guys.

Paul, W9AC