For about 50 years my usual portable antenna was a linked dipole, coax fed, and
usually rigged as an inverted V for 40, 30, and 20 meters. Performance was
usually very good especially if the apex was at least something like 25 feet.
However, this was heavy, took too much time to set up, and often there was not
enough room in a park or campground. Often the set up was just not worth the
trouble after a long day of backpacking, etc. However about 12 years ago when
I got my KX1 with internal tuner, I found out I could make many good QSO’s on
40, 30 and 20 meters with a simple 26 ft. wire in a tree, bush, vertical,
sloped, or whatever and a 17 ft. wire or two laying on the ground. Many more
QSO’s since set up was so easy, however not nearly as good as the inverted V.
Now when I travel I usually just take a 26 ft piece of wire, two 17 ft
counterpoise wires, and about an 8 ft. long wire with a big clip on the end.
Sometimes counterpoise wires are not convenient to lay out, so I just clip onto
a metal picnic table frame, chain link fence, or whatever for a ground
(counterpoise) and it seems to be acceptable. At other times I extend my 26 ft
wire or counterpoise with the 8 ft wire for a better tune or performance on 40
meters, especially if the counterpoise wires are elevated even slightly. If
space and supports are limited, I have thrown one 17 ft wire up over short
trees or bushes of only perhaps 10 ft in height, and this inverted u antenna
has even worked some DX on 20 meters (the other 17 ft wire is a counterpoise).
I usually I like two counterpoise wires since models show a slight null if only
one counterpoise wire is used.
There are better portable antennas than the 26 ft wire, however it seems to be
a winner when you consider weight, ease of set up, cost, and performance. This
is usually the only antenna I carry when I go to Europe or the UK where
millions of folks live within a few hundred miles. However when I operate
portable from Alaska or other very remote locations, or especially in a
contest, then sometimes better antennas are worth the effort and weight even
for this old backpacker. Do investigate end fed half wave antennas…many
portable QRP operators go this route. Your rig runs much more power than my
kx1 and has a better antenna tuner, so you should have even more success than I
have had with my 2 watts.
Cheers, Rick KL7CW
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
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