I am not going to be a proponent of the Buddipole system, nor am I going
to be an adversary.
In other words, the Buddipole system works well, and the standard system
will tune to 15 through 10 meters without the added inductors. For
bands below 15 meters, some inductance is added to lower the resonant
frequency. Those inductors do reduce the efficiency, but it is
proportional. The amount of inefficiency on 20 meters is small, but on
30, 40 and 80 meters, it increases substantially.
For those doing SOTA and operation from places where there are no trees
or other natural supports, the Buddipole is a real salvation, especially
on 20 meters and above, but below that, inefficiencies creep in and it
becomes a physically small antenna unless extra measures are added.
One of those extra measures is to add wire to the tips of the extended
buddipole whips. Clip on alligator clips or others can be easily used
to extend the antenna and increase its lower frequency/
OK. please let me be clear -the Buddipole is a good system, but does
have its limitations. For those of you who have home stations, a
resonant dipole at 40 meters and below will outperform the Buddipole.
For those who do not have that as a possibility, then the Buddipole is a
good alternative.
My reference is to use a 32 foot telescoping pole with the antenna
deployed at the top for a 40 meter and below antenna - the center is at
32 feet and it is usually strung as an inverted Vee in the field. The
lengths of each can vary from a resonant length to whatever the height
and length can provide.
Other than the the pole height, the rest is up to you. Put up a
resonant dipole with the feedpoint at the center, or put up a vertical
with counterpoise wires,it makes no difference, you have an antenna that
can communicate. Cost is the price of the pole plus the cost of the
antenna wire and feedline -nothing more, and you get to experiment with
many different antenna configurations.
73,
Don W3FPR
On 5/4/2016 6:09 PM, lstavenhagen wrote:
Maybe it's more an in-the-eye-of-the-beholder sort of thing then lol.
My first rule of antennas is "put up what stays up, and stays up every
time". That of course, is my /P influence talking, so the rules are a little
different for me:
- The Buddipole may just look nicely packaged, but in actually it really is
as well built as it looks. Unlike the typical DIY project it really truly
doesn't break on you way out in the mountains in some way you never would
have thought of unless you've built it 50 times already before. It's already
got all that experience behind it and yes I was quite pleasantly surprised
to find that thoughtfulness in it when I first took it out of the bag.
- The Buddipole is NOT small. With the 9' whips, you can deploy a full
length dipole on 15 meters and up. And on 20 it's not that far off from full
length and performs really well.
- if you need REALLY big, a longwire inverted V is a simple matter to DIY
with the "Versatee" and the mast by itself. You could even buy ready-made
counterpoises from BP but I made mine out of 140' or so of speaker wire,
bolts and hot melt glue using existing parts that came with my BP. Works
great on 30M on down with the tuners in my rigs. I think it was an extra $10
to do the whole thing.
So it just depends on what your needs are. I need something that can
withstand throwing around, dropping, and repeated over and over
deployment/takedown without something wearing out or snapping off or locking
up when I'm 20 miles from home 11,000 feet in the mountains. I could have
DIY'ed something that did the same thing but the cost would have come out
the same in the end and I'd have likely made mistakes that BP has already
made and solved. So I just bought it already made from BP.
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for DIY; heck I've built 2 K2's already hi hi.
But when something is a quality product, it's a quality product and that's
just the truth about the BP, IMO.
73
LS
W5QD
Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT wrote
The first rule of antennas is "put up the biggest thing you possibly
can, and if it stays up, it was too small."
The Buddipole is SMALL.
That's why I don't have one.
The other reason, it seems to me that you're paying a premium for a
nicely packaged units.
I have a 33 foot collapsible kite pole off of eBay, some heavy velcro
straps from a big box home improvement store, and some wire.
The Buddipole may be a good buy, especially for those who don't want to
put a kit together, but I think the "best money you'll ever spend" is a
little bit over the top.
--
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