Experimenting with different antenna
Experimenting with different antenna configurations is all a part of being an effective operator.
Sure having long wires resonant on every band sitting up incredibly high would be considered the near optimum gold standard.
But what if you can’t do that?
What if you’re incredibly limited with space available? What if you don’t have a tree or pole to mount the center of your wire / end fed too? What if you haven’t got the room in your bag for a wire antenna?
Each antenna type has its own set of compromises and you need to bring what works best for you and how efficient and quick you want to have your station up and running.
Over the past couple of days, Brad VK2NMZ, has been giving this small tapped telescopic whip a shake down with some surprisingly positive results,
Now this antenna will not replace or outdo the performance of a well made wire dipole, but for the portability and price point, it’s a winner.
Checking into the Kandos net today on 40M received a 5×7 return from a station 1000+km up north on 5 watts from the IC-705 with around 3-4ish meters of counterpoise along with the antenna at full extension nets a pretty wide range of usability and any further movements within the bands are just a small adjustment of the counterpoise.
80 meters was successful with approximately 15 meters of wire and was able to connect to a nearby winlink gateway with no issues.
20 meters with much similar results.
Some quick adjustments by retracting the counterpoise and the whips moved the antenna being resonant smack in the middle of the 20 meter band and boy was it alive!
Being small and a vertical where it’s inherently noisy, but now having had the opportunity to compare the performance of this antenna with the likes of a Dipole, inverted-L and end fed out in the field in a variety of different operating conditions this little guy will now have a permanent place in the daily kit.
For those who love operating portable and work on trying to keep their setup to a minimum, what do you use?
