steel whip bandwith and all these new fangled radios

[nfsus]

everyone seems to be looking at these import radios that delve into 12 and or 15 meters. im looking too because im retarded i guess. what do i need with another radio and antenna system? anyway this is the nano of my 102" steel whip with a ball mount and fat spring. it shows how this whole frequency expansion is getting out of hand. theres no way thats cheap or feasible to capture that much band spread using just a single simple antenna. at this point i have to use loading coils or tuners or an antenna switch with hamsticks everywhere. my car uses a tarheel2 and there goes cheap. maybe im wrong and theres a wide band antenna but ive not seen it.


but i still kinda want one

 

[sp5it]

For 12m just make antenna longer by adding some wire at the top.
For 15m capacitance hat maybe?
Or just antenna tuner.
Mike

 

[AudioShockwav]

That's kind of just the way it is when working multiple bands on a single antenna, that why someone invented the screwdriver antenna.
LDG makes a affordable little autotuner.

73
Jeff

 

[BC Coyote]

I've managed to get acceptable SWR from a 108 inch steel whip over a little more than 1 MHz of band. The last time I had one set up on a vehicle I was below 1.8:1 from about 26.7 to 27.7 MHz. (and flat at 27.2 MHz)
If you want more bandwidth than that you will need to use an antenna tuner for sure. A small autotuner as suggested in the post above would make the most sense in a mobile instillation..

 

[nfsus]

I run a small Chinese atu100 and love it. $100 and small enough to fit in the car at the base feed of the antenna.

 

[AudioShockwav]

I run a small Chinese atu100 and love it. $100 and small enough to fit in the car at the base feed of the antenna.

" at the base of the antenna"
Best possible place to run a tuner.
Nice.

73
Jeff

 

[SuperLid]

I run a small Chinese atu100 and love it. $100 and small enough to fit in the car at the base feed of the antenna.

I have no experience with that tuner, but the way you are feeding the antenna, is the most efficient. If that tuner works well, you must be getting out well.

 

[fourstringburn]

" at the base of the antenna"
Best possible place to run a tuner.
Nice.

73
Jeff

This is correct.

Just to add to this,

When using a shortened antenna like a 102 whip for multi-bands below 12 meters you will start having high voltages between the tuner and antenna. If you start going below 15 meters it'll get worse. This coax jumper needs to be super short and you"ll need an outdoor antenna tuner. Those aren't cheap!

You already have a Tarheel screwdriver and that's does the job very well remotely tuning HF bands within the antennas range. This is a much better way to go than a outdoor tuner/whip combo.

If you want to improve the Tarheel antennas efficiency by using less coil to tune lower bands, put a 5ft whip or longer on it. If you go too long, you will lose 10 meters and possibly 12m.

Unfortunately, That antenna you have has a lot of extra losses in the coil that's why it doesn't need any feed-point inductance matching like nearly all screwdriver antennas do. Plus the coil wire are so thin that antenna can't run an amplifier or more than 50 watts on 100% duty cycle modes. That's the trade off to have a short plug and play antenna that can tune down to 80 meters.

The better short Tarheel is the Tarheel HP which can handle 500 watts SSB and 200 watts on AM/FM. This antenna requires a matching inductor coil at the feed point to counter the low feed point impedance especially below 20 meters.

But if your good with power ratings of your Tarheel 2 screwdriver, it is the easiest way to have a multi-band antenna capable of remote tuning.

I would use that