For 20 meters my favorite is a ground plane. Use a 20 foot "Black Widow"
telescoping fishing pole for a support. Clip one end of a 16.5 foot AWG 26
wire to the loop at the tip with a fishing swivel. Support the pole with a
single peg driven into the ground (slip the pole over the peg). Twist the
pole to spiral the wire around the pole a couple times to keep it from
blowing in the wind. The bottom end the wire will now be about 4 ft above
the ground. I use a female BNC to terminate the bottom end of the wire. I
secure the BNC to the pole with a Velcro wrap, but a piece of tape would
work as well. Cut 3 radials each 16.5 ft long and attach to the ground side
of the BNC. A light cord at the end of each radial then runs to 3 tent
stakes which are positioned to keep the radials off the ground and act as
support guys for the pole. Feed with run of RG58 to your rig. This will
give you nice low angle radiation for working DX on 20. The internal tuner
in any of the Elecraft rigs will also easily tune it on 30, 17 and 15. Last
time I had it up, I worked New Zealand from Colorado with 5W on 15 meters.
If you precut the wires and make all the connections ahead of time, this
antenna can easily be put up by one person in 10 minutes. The poles are
available from Cabellas for $17 if I remember correctly. Quite a bargain -
I bought two.
If you're more horizontally oriented and want to go first class, the
Buddipole system will give you lots of options for dipoles on several bands
as well as the ability to configure verticals. Buddipole dipoles at their
normal 10 to 20 foot heights will give you higher angle radiation than the
ground plane, which may be desirable if you're after stateside QSOs rather
than chasing DX.
Have fun in the woods!
... Craig AC0DS
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