[Elecraft] Great day for short whips & /PM operation

[Paul Van Dyke]

That is easy John ... When is Dayton ..??
  Remembering the shock of the amateur radio world of the KX2's birth.

Paul -- KB9AVO

On 3/24/18, Jan Timmers <jaunti at gmail.com> wrote:
> OK Wayne, you've piqued my curiosity.  Is this the first day of the
> Elecraft marketing campaign for their own branded version of a portable
> loaded whip?  You discreetly use "a couple different" in your comment, but
> as I'm a keen-eyed observer to this sort of phrase-ology, I'm taking the
> bait.
>
> Spill it Wayne - there's not many people reading this list now, so it's not
> like you're telling company secrets to everybody.  When's the new product
> launch?
>
> 73 de VE7JBT - John
>
> On 24 March 2018 at 15:41, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:
>
>> I was out walking around in a local park with the KX2 today, using a
>> couple of different 48” loaded whips. (/PM = pedestrian mobile, closely
>> related to “HF Pack,” though I prefer an ultralight version of it, with a
>> “pack” weighing only 2 pounds.) There were quite a few stations on 20 and
>> 15 meters, and I had no trouble working everyone I called using 5 or 10
>> watts. Oh, and the sun finally came out...it’s been wet up here.
>>
>> Just a reminder to those of you who want to try this: You really do have
>> to use at least one radial (counterpoise wire) if you plan to transmit.
>> While receive works pretty well even without the radial, your transmitted
>> signal will be 15-20 dB down, and you may have problems with RFI. This
>> differential effect between RX and TX performance without a radial becomes
>> more pronounced as you go down in frequency.
>>
>> Short whips usually come with instructions that suggest adjusting the
>> length of the radial wire and/or the length of the telescoping part in
>> order to obtain a low SWR. While that is certainly possible, it’s far
>> easier to let an ATU do the fine tuning. The ATU can compensate for
>> variations in counterpoise length, bends in the wire, ground conditions,
>> how high off the ground the antenna is, etc. If the SWR goes up for any of
>> these reasons, just tap the ATU tune button.
>>
>> (This is one reason that all Elecraft radios have internal ATU options,
>> BTW.)
>>
>> Please report back on your own success with /PM operation.
>>
>> 73,
>> Wayne
>> N6KR
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to jaunti at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards;
> John Timmers
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to pvandyke1953 at gmail.com