On Wed, 1 Apr 2009 06:10:06 -0500, Phil & Debbie Salas wrote: >"I'll be vacationing in NC this summer at a nice cottage in the mountains. >Taking my K3, what is the best portable antenna to take with me for that >week.
My "strong opinion" is to "be prepared" for a variety of possible conditions with some simple solutions. One very useful piece, if you can transport it, is the DK9SQ 10M long telescoping mast. It's a nine-section fibreglas mast that comes in a very nice outer tube that's about 42 inches long. Tape a suitable length of wire to it and you've got half of an antenna that you stick stick out a window or set up on a patio. The other half of the antenna is some more wire that you attach to the coax to act as radials or a counterpoise. It's also quite helpful to carry several short lengths of small diameter insulated wire wound on spools. I found a half dozen spools of black #22 at a hamfest, and they are part of my vacation tool kit. You can launch one or more of these wires into a tree with a "wrist rocket" (advertised in QST and on the internet, it's essentially a very short casting rod and reel). If you're in a building with a steel frame, you can stick that pole or run that wire out the window and the building steel as a counterpoise (run a wire from the radio chassis to the building -- a window frame, or even the green wire of a power outlet). My ham club when I lived back in Chicago holds an annual QRP night in a local park, where members bring a rig and some sort of antenna. I wedged my DK9SQ pole between the top and seat of a picnic table and strung some wire radials on the ground. My K2 with tuner loaded it just fine on 30 and 40M, and I made a half dozen Qs in a little over an hour (including busting a DX pileup in the Carribean). And don't overlook the possibility of hoisting a simple dipole into some trees with a wrist rocket. Take along a length of RG58, and an SO-239 that you can attach wires to. I like these simple wire options a LOT better than loaded whips like mobile antennas and the Buddy Pole simply because loaded whips are 1) lossy and 2) very narrow band. When we're running QRP, the last thing we need is loss. 73, Jim Brown 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
