Thank you, Derek MM0WST for the kind and encouraging e-mail you sent, as well as the neat button image. I have posted it to the right side of the blog - it's really cool looking.
My other "Thank You" goes out to Ivin Flint W9ILF. We had been trading some e-mails back and forth about our Buddisticks and he sent me some photos of his set up. Instead of the conventional order of base, arms, coil, whip - I noticed he was using base, coil, arms, whip. As Ivin pointed out to me, keeping the coil closer to the base makes it way easier to change the tap setting on the coil. This is especially true in my case when my Buddistick is mounted on the top of my Jeep, and the coil is probably at the 12 - 15 foot level. A small thing, but very useful and helpful.
I sometimes find myself getting into a habit or routine of how things are supposed to go together (conventionally) and I forget to think "outside of the box" from time to time. It's nice to have good friends, with good ideas, to be able to count on! Now when I want to change coil taps, I just reach up and make the change, instead of removing antenna from roof, changing tap position, and putting antenna back on roof. Much easier!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
If you look at the literature on loaded antennas like this, you'll find that base-loaded antennas have less efficiency than center-loaded antennas.
ReplyDeleteSo, while putting the loading coil at the base may make it easier to adjust, the efficiency will suffer. However, for highly loaded antennas like this, it probably won't matter terribly.