Re: Portable vertical antenna suggestions
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Bob, Reason I asked, I tried a 17'6" telescoping antenna with 4-10' sloping radials. Ant base is at about 42". Resonated at 15.5 MHz.? Read recently that radial length is critical for elevated verticals.? Will try longer radials next Spring when ground thaws.
Purchased X6100 in July. Tried R1CBU? software but gave up for lack of docs. I use it for POTA and only use it on QRP CW. No problems yet. Using lithium 20,000 mah battery pack with 9V trigger cable. Less heat, longer operation. Saw post indicating it would operate at 5w at 9V.
73, Rick K8BMA?
Rick,
I'm using the single 16.5' counterpoise as per the instructions for the antenna. ?
I've tried it with the antenna set up on a mini-tripod on the ground with the counterpoise laying on the ground, with it sloping down to the ground from the antenna set up on my pick-up truck tailgate, and with the antenna sitting on the tailgate of my pick-up with the counterpoise draped over the length of the truck.? On the ground and elevated/sloping resulted in the same SWR while having it draped over the truck raised the SWR by a full point.
I'm using a 15' RG58AU feed line and have tried it with the feed line coiled, with the feed line stretched out, with five tight loops on the radio end, and with five snap-on "mystery mix" ferrites on the radio end.? I have some proper mix 31 ferrites arriving on Monday for further experimenting.? The advice from QRPGuys was to run the feed line through a mix 31 ferrite five times.
I have other portable antennas (PARS EndFedz 10/20/40 MkII and SOTAbeams BandHopper III linked dipole) that work extremely well and I'm trying use this DS1 antenna in the super-convenient and compact manner as it's provided by the designer. ?
I'm not really interested in getting caught up with the potential nightmare spiderweb of added radials. ?:-) ?I'm curious to hear if other users are getting 1:1 SWR across the 20m band with the antenna assembled and used as provided/instructed by QRPGuys.? It does seem to be performing better than I expected as is. ?
--
Bob
KD2TTM
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