New pack antenna

[Moleculo]

I like to take an HF rig out camping with me, but when I'm camping in a place where there's only short trees or limited space, a big wire doesn't always work. So the other day, I was looking for a 10-80 portable type antenna that I could use when camping in that situation and I stumbled across this: www.superantennas.com/. It looks like a basic manual screwdriver that breaks down. The difference, though is that the slider to adjust frequency is over and above the coil, so the part that extends above the coil will tend to act like a capacity hat. I ordered one to take with me while I'm camping next week. It should be here Monday, so by the following week I should have a report on the thing.

 

[Moleculo]

Well, I had fun with the new antenna. First, it is extremely well made. The antenna is primarily made from aluminum, so it is very light. I successfully used it off a park bench on 20, 40, and 80 meters with 100 watts. On one day, I had reports all over the western half of the U.S. on 20 meters of 5/7. I had a contact to Alabama from California on 20 meters that gave me a 5/5. Unfortunately, he was a QRP 10 watt station and I had a hard time copying him. Not bad at all. 80 meters was more of a challenge, of course. I did have a couple successful contacts before the battery voltage started getting too low.

The builder gives you a cheat sheet to show you the general place to place the tuning slide for each band. I took my MFJ analyzer, so it was pretty easy after that. 80 meters is pretty touchy because of the coil design, but I got it to work just fine. He even ships it with some wire that you fan out with a connector to give you ground plane radials! All in all, this is a very well made and very easy to use pack antenna. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something that breaks down into 18" segments, but still works good. The price is really reasonable. He also has a motorized version, and sells a spring steel stinger if you want a travel, briefcase mobile antenna. Over the next couple days, I'll try to take a few pics of the antenna and post it.

 

[W5LZ]

Mole',
Hope you get the pictures working. Can't get the address to work on my computer... rats.
- 'Doc

...........

Got the address to work at last! Not a bad looking protable antenna.
- 'Doc

 

[bandaid kid]

Mole,

I have one of those antennas, too. When you have no other choice, they work better than any other compromise antenna.

I've used mine with my FT-817 and FT-897 and I have no complaints, but a tuned dipole works better.

73

 

[Moleculo]

OK, I finally got the time to put the pics up. I posted a whole bunch of 'em in the forum gallery. You can click on the thumbnail and it brings up a little bigger pic. Then if you click on it again, it brings up a big pic. The antenna is really pretty neat. It'll do just about any band from 80m to 440 mhz. It helps to have an analyzer handy to tune it, though.

Yes, a full size dipole works better...but that's comparing apples and oranges. He also sells a spring steel whip for mobile use if you want a briefcase mobile antenna with a magmount.


http://www.worldwidedx.com/gallery/superantenna