What 20m antenna. Got permanent 3/8 stud on my pickup..

[CB590]

Looking at ham stick for 20m.. I heard its like 7'..

Got permanent 3/8 mount on back rear quarter panel of truck from old Firestik 5'..

Any other cheap decent options??

 

[RatsoW8]

Hams sticks are one of the few cheap and decent antennas out there. Start looking at screwdriver antennas and you can get into some big money real fast.
I use a 20 m stick when I take road trips and it works fine on 20. You can also look at the Hustler masts and resonators. A little more expensive but they work about as well as a stick antenna.

 

[w9cll]

If you just want 20 meters then get a "HamStick", MFJ and Workman make them. Personally I would get the MFJ one. Real HamSticks are no longer being produced.

https://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1620T

 

[fourstringburn]

Hustlers was mentioned by Ratso, I would go that route for the height issue. A single Hustler isn't much more than a Hamstick for the same band. You do have to buy the mast separate though which is just a 22 in. mast with 3/8 x 24 threads. Then you can buy extra resonators separately for other bands if you desire.

Hustlers work well and I have used them before I went to a screwdriver antenna. Just like Hamsticks, you can keep some extra resonators for other bands with you and change them out to work other bands. Just pretune them and your ready to go!

Hustler also makes a tri-band adapter so you can put 3 resonators on 1 mast and have 3 bands running with 1 coax and instant bandswitching.

A little more costly but a simple way to have a tri-band antenna!


Hustler VP-1 Triband Adapter Kit

 

[KD2GOE]

i have the 20 meter hamstick from MFJ on my car it works good..

MFJ-1620T HF STICK, 20M, 3/8-24, W/WHIP, MOBILE ANTENNA

 

[CB590]

Would a 40 meter hamstick using an external tuner be able to tune 20 meters? Or would that be unlikely?

 

[fourstringburn]

Would a 40 meter hamstick using an external tuner be able to tune 20 meters? Or would that be unlikely?

Maybe a big roller inductor tuner could, but why!

With mobile mono band antennas you should only use a tuner to extend the range of the antennas bandwidth or clean up the bandwidth of it's intended range. Most mono band mobile antennas above 20 meters should cover their intended band good enough. Below 20 meters, the bandwidth gets even narrower where a 80 meter antenna barely covers 30 KHz of frequencies. A tuner could extend that some more but after a certain point, the antenna is so far away from any resonance that it is more of a dummy load.

This is where screwdriver antennas excel beyond all the mobile antennas. It's not that they are more efficient than the others, it's the fact that 1 antenna can be remotely tuned to cover all the HF bands ( model dependent).

 

[w9cll]

Would a 40 meter hamstick using an external tuner be able to tune 20 meters? Or would that be unlikely?

Before I installed the screwdriver antenna I ran a 17 meter hamstick and used an LDG tuner to work other bands. Was it the best? No but it did work. I worked MIDCARS on 7.258 mobile with that setup.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Would a 40 meter hamstick using an external tuner be able to tune 20 meters? Or would that be unlikely?

Don't get "tuned" confused with "work good". It certainly WILL tune if all you want is a low SWR. If you want decent performance use something else. Hamstick actually recommends AGAINST using them on bands they are not intended for. The wire is small and the reactance voltages can cause over heating. It CAN be done but there are better alternatives. I used a home made 10 foot antenna that was self rersonant on 15m. I used a Yaesu FC-40 auto tuner to operate on 20m and up with it. Losses were low with that antenna as it was half inch fiberglass rod helically wound with the braid from RG-8 coax cable and topped with a 5 foot whip. It worked better than the 20m Hamstick with a tuner.