[Elecraft] Miniature self-supporting HF antennas

[Jim Brown]

On Sun,7/19/2015 9:52 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
> It's not going to radiate any lower than the horizon, and that kind of 
> low angle is extremely useful for long distances.  That can be 
> appropriate even for QRP, although it might be more propagation 
> dependent versus making some high angle short skip contacts.  If I 
> want to see how far I can work when backpacking, I'm going with a 
> vertical unless the ground conductivity is just plain awful.

The soil conductivity on most high mountaintops IS just plain awful. :) 
BUT -- there's nothing like having your antenna on a 3,000 ft tower, 
even if it is made of rock. When you get there, almost anything works, 
and anything decent works really well.

W6GJB has a "go-kit" for his KX3 that includes a simple telescoping 
antenna that mounts to a tripod with a coax connector in the base, and a 
couple of wire radials that can be tossed into surrounding vegetation if 
there is any, or lay on the ground if there is not. Last summer as a 
site survey for FD, we set that up at Berryessa Peak (70 miles N of SF), 
and in about ten minutes, made three contest-style CW Qs to JA, SA, and 
the east coast of the US.

Spiderbeam sells a 40ft (12M) telescoping fiberglass pole that weighs 7# 
and collapses to 3ft-10in. About $135 with shipping from TN).

For about the same price, there's the DK9SQ 33 ft carbon fibre pole that 
collapses to 3.8 ft and weighs 2.2#. I used one of those with my K2 at 
my old Chicago club's annual QRP night in a local park. A photo is on my 
qrz.com page. I taped a #22 wire to it, wedged it between the seat and 
the top of the picnic bench (at roughly a 45 degree angle), and laid out 
two more wires as radials. Running 5W on 30M, I easily made a half dozen 
QSOs, including one that was a Caribbean station running a pileup.

I agree that the Alex Loop, as well as home brew versions of it, can be 
a pretty decent backpacking antenna. W6GJB also has one of those.

73, Jim K9YC