This simple antenna has worked very well with my 3-band KX1 (40-30-20). The original idea came from WA3WSJ. The antenna consists of a 40-ft radiator that is tossed up into a tree to form anything from an inverted-L, to a sloper, to a vertical. There are three 16-ft counterpoise wires that are laid out on the ground. The antenna and counterpoise are connected directly to the KX1 using a BNC-to-banana-jack adaptor. I have about 50-ft of fishing line attached to the end of the radiator and put a fishing weight on the end of that. I either use a slingshot or my arm to toss the weight over a branch and then haul up the antenna into place. The radiator and counterpoise are both made from steel bead wire. It is a very strong but thin nylon coated stranded steel wire that is used by craft people to make jewelry. A 100-ft spool only cost about $7 at a local fabric and craft store. Of course the nylon coating must be removed to make the connections, and since it's steel and can't be soldered a banana plug that clamps onto the wire must be used. The radiator, fishing line, and counterpoise all wind back up on the spool that the wire originally came on. This antenna is simple, strong, and light weight, and has given me good results from the field with contacts all over the country and some DX as well. I'm sure that steel wire has all kinds of technical problems with velocity factors and stuff like that, but it works. Making it with some small gauge Teflon coated copper wire should certainly work as well or better than the bead wire.
73, Paul - N8XMS ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
