[Elecraft] Backpacking antennas

[Wes Stewart]

The recently closed thread about the so-called end-fed-half-wave (EFHW) antennas 
elicited a lot (too much in Eric's eyes) of discussion, much of it confused and 
confusing.

To keep this Elecraft related, I'll throw in something that Wayne wrote in 
another thread about the subject of this thread:

"For antennas, assuming you have trees or other ad-hoc supports available, you 
can use a random-length wire for both the antenna and ground. Toss one wire in a 
tree (etc.) and lay the other on the ground. The KXAT3 ATU will tune a 25' or so 
wire on 40 meters and up. Use twice that length to also get down to 80 and 60 m. 
You can connect the wires to a BNC-to-binding post adapter, like our model 
#BNC-BP. For wire, I recommend #26 "Silky" from the Wireman."

In the EFHW thread I made, among others, the following comment:

"This thread is a long one and frankly I didn't follow it at first, but a little 
research says that the OP was interested in bringing a coax feeder directly into 
the radio from the end of a wire.  He incorrectly called the coax a 
"counterpoise", instead of an extension of the wire which it really is, because 
it's going to radiate, but never mind that.  In this case, the antenna is a 
"sloper" whether it is called that or not.  If one end is higher than the TX 
then there is a vertical component to the geometry and the radio chassis is the 
"counterpoise.""

I've since heard privately from him (and will answer, Dan) but to help clarify 
this subject I'll turn to the late LB Cebik for help:

http://www.antennex.com/shack/Dec06/cps.html

I think his Figures 5 and 6 are particularly appropriate, but the whole piece is 
informative.

Wes  N7WS