[Elecraft] Strong recommendation: MFJ 18xx-series single-band whips for KX3, etc.

[Tom Crayner]

Wayne,

Funny you should bring this up, I just received an MFJ-1899T today. Slapped
a counterpoise on it and at 6 watts running JT9 (in New Jersey) was able to
be heard (watching PSK Reporter) all the way in CA and Alberta.  Just
worked a station in MN.

I'm not even giving the whip a fair chance... I'm sitting in a basement
with it cranked up to the floor joist over my head, nestled between 4 foot
fluorescent tubes and metal duct work. It tuned 1.2:1... counterpoise is
connected to ground thumb screw next to antenna jack.

I did groove a small piece of 2x4 for the right angle BNC connector to be
cradled on so all that weight of the telescopic whip doesn't damage the
jack...

Can't wait to take this down to the shore in a few weeks and see what it
can really do without all the disadvantages I've placed on it tonight....
:-)

Tom, W2YF


On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 10:12 PM, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've been using an MFJ-1820T telescoping 20-meter whip for a few months.
> Considering its length (48"), results have been excellent. I typically use
> it with the KX3 on a picnic table at 15 W (with an external battery), or
> hand-held at 3 to 5 W (internal battery).
>
> During the ARRL DX contest I worked many countries in CW and RTTY modes,
> and have also had a number of longer QSOs on 20-meter SSB. Of course at
> these power levels, with an electrically short whip, good band conditions
> can't hurt.
>
> I prefer a 25' or so wire-in-a-tree antenna when there's time. But when I
> need a quick deployment antenna that weighs very little, I pull out the
> 1820T. Note that you *must* use at least one counterpose wire. More than
> one helps, but all of the QSOs I described were made with a single 13'-long
> wire laid out on the ground. With no ground wire, you'll be down some 15 to
> 20 dB in transmit mode.
>
> Since the 20-meter results were so good, I also bought the whips for 40,
> 17, 15, and 10 meters. 40 meters is a rough ride at 48", but I was still
> able to check into daytime SSB nets all over the west coast running 10 W.
> On the higher bands, results improve as you go higher in frequency. I
> worked a few JAs on 15 meter SSB running just 1 watt.
>
> A traditional problem with such antennas is that the the SWR can sometimes
> be unexpectedly high, requiring that you micro-adjust the telescoping
> length and/or adjust the length of the counterpoise wire. This is
> completely unnecessary if you have an auto-tuner available. In particular,
> the KX3's ATU can quickly match any of these whips over their full target
> band. In a pinch the ATU can also match a given whip on adjacent bands. In
> the DX contest mentioned I tuned up the 20-meter whip on 17 and 15 meters
> as well, and made a few Q's there, despite the losses due to off-resonance
> operation.
>
> These whips can handle a surprising amount of power. They're rated to 25
> W, but I ran 50 W through the 20-meter version for several minutes without
> damaging it. Some other compact whips I've tried overheated quickly even at
> 10 W, including some of the Maldol models. When this happens, the SWR goes
> up and stays up until the coil cools down.
>
> Caveat: Always use a full-size antenna when possible. But if you've just
> crested a new hill and only have a couple of minutes to see if the RF
> really is greener on the other side, this is an excellent choice.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
>
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