[Elecraft] Portable antnennas

[Fred Jensen]

Boy, are you ever going to get overwhelmed with info, Mark! :-))

You might want to join the NASOTA Yahoo Group and post your question 
there too, they're the folks that climb summits with radios and there is 
a huge amount of field antenna experience to be mined there.

[insert all the usual disclaimers here, I'm retired and I have no 
financial interest in any product I am about to name]

I had a full-up commercial BP for quite awhile.  It is very well 
constructed, very sturdy, and customer service is very good.  There is a 
BP Yahoo crowd full of good info.  It is also quite heavy, relatively 
speaking, and takes awhile to set up and get tuned ... I had "recipes" 
for the tuning but still needed the impedance bridge.  Despite pictures 
of a variety of arrangements for the BP, there really seem to be only 
two -- ground plane vertical and low OCF loaded dipole.  Mine worked OK, 
best in vertical GP configurations where height doesn't mean as much as 
in horizontal ones.

I finally sold it and bought an Alexloop.  The cost is about the same 
although you can HB a resonant loop pretty easy for a lot less.  It's a 
magnetic loop and is really a resonant transformer.  It is MUCH lighter, 
way fewer parts, and I can set it up and take it down in about 5 min.  I 
use it on a tripod for a Rain Bird sprinkler I got at Home Depot, it's a 
couple feet above me when I'm operating, and I can adjust the tuning. 
The Alex covers 40-10, although the loop isn't really large enough for 
40m and the tuning is quite critical.  30m is better and it works great 
above 30m.

Many of the SOTA crowd use end-fed half-wave wires.  They are extremely 
light [just wire and a transformer], and they are fairly immune to the 
issue of "Where is the RF Ground?"  They do require at least one support 
to get them up into the air.

I'm pretty happy with my loop, it works at least as good as the BP, and 
it is easy to carry and set up.  Those who run up mountains [NASOTA has 
them :-)] like stuff even lighter.  Field operation, on a mountain top 
or in a local park is truly a lot of fun.  There are a lot of field 
operating events, and Elecraft has some really cool field radios.  I use 
my KX1 in the Spartan Sprint each month, and I use my K2 for summit 
activations.  It's an element of ham radio that didn't really exist when 
I was a teenager.

For the record, I'm 73 and a little orthopedically challenged so you 
need to adjust the above to make sense for your current age and physical 
situation.  Good luck, antennas are one of the last bastions of home 
brew in ham radio.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org

On 1/12/2014 4:14 PM, Mark Tellez wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I would like to get some advice - based on experience - regarding the
> various portable antenna options there are currently available on the
> market.  I am considering the buddipole system, super antenna, chameleon,
> and others.  I am interested in hearing about performance and quality/
> durability of the construction.  I am not going to be backpacking with the
> antenna but portability and ease of setup is a consideration.  I will be
> operating from 6m all the way through 80m.