Tuning it with the clips and elevated counterpoise was a snap thanks to my Rig Expert analyzer and once set, was easily repeatable. The Buddistick was usually better on receive than the wire and I ended up making most of my contacts with it. I had also set up an end fed long wire and a Wolf River antenna. I used it for Field Day and was very pleased with the results. I wanted a,very small, light antenna system to take on the road that didn’t require a mast or tree, so a vertical was the logical choice. EFHW goes up quick, is easy to carry, and is reasonably effective.Purchased the Buddistick Pro from Bud at this year’s Dayton Hamvention. Dipoles require supporting center and ends which can be a chore for a rapid portable setup. That's a level of "construction" which someone who is all thumbs can handle. Borrow an antenna analyzer to trim it to length. You'll generally have to cut a length of wire. It may be sensitive to noise, but if you're portable, you're probably not near RFI sources.īuilding an EFHW - You can certainly build the impedance matcher, but there are many available commercially. While RF in the shack can be a problem for an EFHW, you aren't in a shack when you're portable. You can't get much more portable than a coil of 24 AWG wire. I've personally used this on hundreds of outings. If you have an ATU, it will also suffice on 17m and 30m. Replace the matching unit with a binding-post-to-BNC adapter, add a 20 meter counterpoise, and the hoisted wire acts as a 1/4 wave on 40 meters. With a suitable impedance matching unit, 10 meters of wire will operate well on 20 meters as an EFHW. If no trees, you'll have to carry a 30 ft fishing pole, but they can be found and the collapse to fit into a trunk. If you'll be operating where there are trees, you can tie a rock to some cord, throw it over a tree, and hoist up a 10 meter piece of wire. 100 watts), and would work principally in SSB mode with occasional CW.Įnd-fed half-waves (EFHW) are popular with SOTA operators, and they understand portable. I would like to be able to use full barefoot power (i.e. Since specific product recommendations are off topic here, can you give me some guidance as to the types of antennas that might be suitable for this situation? The Buddipole seems usable just about anywhere, though, which is a huge plus. I'm attracted to the Buddipole system for a few reasons, although I wonder sometimes if I might be better with a longer dipole and some means of putting the thing up. The antenna should be able to be set up by a solo operator.Recommend a type of antenna, rather than a specific commercial product. I prefer something I can buy over something I can build partially because of my general building skill, and principally because of lacking time.Assume I have a tuner, although a portable antenna that can be made resonant on multiple bands would be a nice thing. Multiband is preferred, but I'm better off on a single band than on no bands.I don't intend to take the antenna to mountaintops (unless there's a road there :) ). By "portable" I mean it can be carried in a modestly-sized vehicle such as a sedan/saloon and hauled on foot a reasonably short distance.My broad (and somewhat flexible) criteria are: I'd like to get started doing portable HF work and I'd like some information on antenna possibilities.
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