I was going to add my own comments to the original question but I don’t see how I can do anything better than Jim’s comments below.
Well, maybe just one thing… I have a Buddipole and I kind of like it. It works great in some situations where the other methods are not as easy to accomplish. I used to do wires up in trees (using a sling shot with fishing line although I use a Bow & Arrow at home — I also have trees on the property). And, I had a 30 foot push up fiberglass pole that I used as the center for an inverted 20-meter Dipole which is easy to put up. I have a mount I made (or, I used to) fastened on the back of my pickup truck for the pole giving it another 3 feet. I need to fix up a new mount though as I junked the previous one. Of course, this works only when you use your pickup truck as the base station but I am portable in the field doing that (while my wife is busy photographing birds). Unfortunately, I broke the fiberglass pole and need to get a new one someday. However, now that I am more experienced with the Buddipole and I have my own extension mast that I use at times, it is not a bad deal. I operate almost always 20 meters though. But, nothing can beat the cost of wires in trees and if you had to buy pushup fiberglass pole, that is still cheaper than a Buddipole. 73, phil, K7PEH > On Oct 5, 2015, at 1:52 PM, Jim Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon,10/5/2015 12:49 PM, David Davis wrote: >> The two items I have been looking at are the following: >> >> 1. PX3 Panadapter >> 2. AA-170 Antenna analyzer > > The answer depends on a lot of things -- your technical background, your > operating style and objectives, etc. What do you plan to do with your > "portable" station? Backpacking? Driving somewhere to set up? In the > wilderness or in a neighborhood park? What do you want to work? What bands, > what style? Contesting, summits, lighthouses, casual operation, vacations, > etc.? > > Definitely do NOT waste money on an antenna analyzer until you have real > antennas to measure. Besides -- the KX3 has a very good SWR readout built in, > so it's easy to use to figure out where your antenna is resonant, and tweak > it to length if necessary. If the feedline is short, all you really care > about is whether the antenna loads -- push the button to activate the KXAT3 > and see if it loads OK (close to full power). > > The PX3 is VERY useful when trying to find activity on a quiet band, but you > must learn to use it first. > > I agree with the suggestion of some form of launcher to get wires in trees. > The tennis ball launcher is great if you're driving to the site, but far too > heavy to carry up a trail. For backpacking, something like a "wrist rocket" > would be a far better choice. Several of my local friends (AE6RF and N6RNO) > are quite skilled at launching wires into trees using nothing more than > fishing line with a small heavy weight attached, using their arm as a > catapault. Once the line is in the tree, use it to pull up the rope that will > hold the antenna. > > I'm not a fan of Buddipoles -- inefficient, heavy, expensive. I like one of > several telescoping fiberglass poles to which it's easy to tape a wire. Buy > or improvise one or more fixtures to mount it vertically, buy more wire to > use as radials or a counterpoise, and you've got a far more effective antenna > for less money. #18 (or even #22) works fine for backpacking. > > 73, Jim K9YC > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
