[Elecraft] Portable 60-80m wire antennas

[Nr4c]

I've had good luck with antennas made from RS 22 AWG Speaker wire and an Elecraft BL-2 BALUN. A 100 ft spool will yield a 135' doublet with about 30+ feet of "twinlead" feed line. You can make insulators from pieces of plastic toothbrush handles. Add a kite wonder from BuddiPole or other QRP sites and all you need is a tree for a Inverted V.  It's also neat to make it an OCF by taking about 20' off one end and splicing it to the other end. Then when you put the center over a tree, the feed point is to one side. 

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...nr4c. bill


> On Mar 15, 2016, at 12:59 PM, Bruce Nourish <w0mbt at w0mbt.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> For 40m, 30m, and 20m, the KX1 docs recommend a ~24' length of
> sorta-vertical #24 wire with shorter counterpoises as a good field antenna.
> I've set that up for my KX1 and KX3, and (unsurprisingly) it works well on
> both.
> 
> For 80m, the KX1 docs recommend a resonant antenna, and I'm considering my
> options. Most of what's written out there about low band antennas seems to
> be about durable (and heavy) mobile or home installations. Does anyone have
> any experience they'd like to share with backpackable lower band antennas?
> 
> Options and questions I'm considering include:
> 
> * Build a coil big enough to load up my 24' vertical on 80m, with a tap for
> 60m. Will that be a long enough radiator?
> 
> * Figure out the kite-vertical thing, fly a wire close enough to l/4 that
> the KX1 can tune it. How bulky would that be?
> 
> * Will #24 wire be a decent radiator for the lower bands, or should I eat
> the (not-inconsiderable) weight of a bigger gauge?
> 
> * Does anyone have any tips on constructing backpackable (minimum weight)
> coils? What's the smallest wire and lightest insulator?
> 
> * I'm planning a vertical, as this would seem to require strictly less wire
> and coils than any dipole or inverted vee, but am I missing some other
> offsetting advantage?
> 
> Cheers,
> Bruce
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