[Mobile-Portable] Mobile HF antenna

Wed, 13 Feb 2002 12:45:31 -0800

I do like the screwdrivers. I've used Hamsticks and the older Ten-Tec mobile
verticals as well as a bugcatcher. Today I use a mostly homebrew
screwdriver, that's a quarter wave long on 20m. It's installed in a 96
Ranger with a fiberglass shell. The lower part of the antenna screwdriver,
and the first 48" of the top whip are installed horizantally. A heavy duty
ball mount is used in 'pass-thru' mode on the shell. A 102" SS whip is
attached.

I've been running around with this setup for the last couple of days. 80-20m
performance has been awesome to say the least. Sigs on a dipole at 50' are
within an S unit or so on the mobile. I can get resonance on all bands
except 17m. Not sure what I'm going to do for that band, I really like
running 17 mobile!

I never got into base loaded antennas. In thinking about them versus a
screwdriver I was concerned about the current distribution at the feedpoint.
Having a 2" pipe will help keep losses down because of lower resistive
losses. In a very short, base loaded setup, all the current is located in
the tuner! I would be interested in field strength reading between the base
loaded with a 102" whip and a screwdriver with a 102" top whip.

Either way, keep experimenting!!

73

.mark

http://www.qsl.net/ka6wke

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 12:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Mobile-Portable] Mobile HF antenna

My 8 foot stainless whip fed by a SGC Smartuner is hard to beat. The whip is

relatively low visibility being just a thin rod. Before that, I fed the same

whip with a MFJ manually operated long wire tuner (about $40) located in the

trunk near the whip. It worked good too, but couldn't resist the temptation 
of operating ease of the auto tuner. Other types are available these days so

at least there is a choice of type and price. Good reports from Europe and 
across US--especcially on the higher bands.

Joe N1KHB

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