I use a method similar to my home installation of a 100 foot spool of #16 insulated "primary" wire hanging from a limb high up in a big fir tree. At home it drops from a 70 foot branch at a 45° angle. The copper plumbing system in the crawl space is the "ground" half of the system.
When camping I use the Hyperdog sling shot with mason's line and a 6 oz lead fishing weight to get my 100 foot wire as high as possible into an available tree. I have another similar spool of wire which could be the other half of a dipole if another tree is available. But usually I just string it along the ground somewhere under the first wire to act as a sort of radial. I've used this method with my Icom703 and an MFJ-945C antenna tuner. When camping, I use a short coax between the tuner and a binding post adapter for the wires. That adapter ends up being quite low on a short pole with only about 10-15 feet of coax from the tuner (which also keeps losses at bay with the higher SWR's in this arrangement). I set up the MFJ in the middle of a band (without the 703 tuner engaged) and then use the 703 tuner to refine the match when I move within the band. The MFJ settings are recorded so I can quickly switch between bands. The resulting angles of this type of antenna produce a mix of pattern and propagation characteristics of both horizontal and vertical antennas. Dick Ballard W7AND [EMAIL PROTECTED] Beaverton OR (near Portland) On Fri, 24 Mar 2006 08:09:20 -0800 (PST), you wrote: >Wow, What a support Group !!!! Thanks to all the oldsters out there who >responded to my cataract problem (surgery went well yesterday by the way). > > Now my next question is what kind of antennas to use (mostly for 20 meters) > when out camping. Here in Northeastern Illinois, most campsites have only one > tree to hang a dipole on which would leave the ends to droop to the ground > etc. > What do most of you guys use when camping? > > Next question in line will be Power Supplies for the K1. > > Dick Powers WB9PWQ / AFA3DP _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
