Ron... I have been happy with my AX-1. I have shared with the group before my impressive contacts made with my KX3 and the whip. The second time out, I was doing a SOTA activation of a hill really :-) - only 1200' elevation. With the KX3 in my lap, AX1 whip connected via 90 degree fitting to the radio, and the counter poise thrown over the edge of the rocky slope headed down on the north side of the "mountain", my first SSB contact was with France (no ATU needed that day - counterpoise placement gave me 1.3:1 SWR). That was running maybe 10ish watts from a not fully charged external pack. I've also contacted Belgium while spread out on the hood of my Jeep for a SSB POTA contact with all 15 watts on 40 meters using the 40 meter coil add-on and the counterpoise was the Jeep frame/body.
Hank K4HYJ ----- Original Message ----- From: Ron Gruner (r...@gruner.com) Date: 09/19/22 13:34 To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Elecraft AX-1 Whip Antenna I've been impressed by how well my little AX-1 whip antenna performs on 20 meters. Here's a photo of the rig: https://gruner.com/k4rhg/andover_ma.png and the propagation map: https://gruner.com/k4rhg/wspr_2watts_sep16_2022.png A friend, Derek Rowell (AK1WI), gave me a two-watt WSPR kit he had designed -- easy and fun to build. I connected the unit to the AX-1 sitting in a window sill facing west and strung the out-of-the-box counterpoise over a lamp shade and bed headboard. No idea what the SWR is, but it must be pretty good. I immediately began receiving propagation reports and within 24 hours had reports from 240 unique stations. The farthest was VK5ARG (17,276 km) with a SNR of -21. Even though the window faced the west, propagation into Europe was strong with SV9KI (7,800 km) reporting -26 SNR. The propagation report is from http://wspr.rocks/ <http://wspr.rocks/> I've found that WSPR is a great way to evaluate antennas. The AX-1 seems to be performing very well. 73, Ron Gruner K4RHG -- ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to h...@optilink.us ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
