Anybody having trouble with getting these animals to resonate after adding a
counterpoise might try adding a capacity hat over the coil made with a couple
of stiff wires and aligator clips - I've found this to be effective on
several homemade whips I've fiddled with over the last month - it's
particularly easy to work out if you're using an antenna analyzer, although a
2.5 meg shift to 20 meters might be a bit of stretch.....
.......And if you're looking for a cheap, light weight, insulated whip shaft,
you might try one of the $2-3 4 or 6 foot garden poles with the green plastic
on the outside, cheap metal on the inside. The ones I've seen are just the
right size to screw a 3/8-24 stud into (use an allen wrench type stud if you
want to spend up, or cut the head off a bolt if you're cheap and use a vice
grip to turn it in - once you cut the ends open the studs can be force
threaded in to form a really light weight, relatively strong insulated mast -
if you don't like green you may have to spend 2$ for spray paint - I screw
10/15/17/20 meter Hustler resonators on top and don't have any trouble
hitting resonance with a three foot mast. It won't get ya on 40, but I'd
be willing to bet it eats an ATX for lunch on the higher frequency bands.
Press on, Field Day's almost here...73 Scott
