Thinking of new portable antenna ideas........

In instances when no trees are handy.

I like the idea that Stan WB2LQF has in my last post. A 28' radiator with one single counterpoise wire seems easy enough. And I'm going to try it - modified a bit to suit my situation. But there are a couple other possibilities I want to give a shot, also.

One is the venerable EARCHI antenna that I have used with good success in the past. But instead of the 53' radiator that I usually use and deploy into the trees, this seems intriguing. These are typical SWR values for a 24.5' radiator with a 9:1 UNUN.

Used as a vertical antenna, it would be interesting to see how it performs. It sure would be easy enough to deploy.

And I'm also thinking of going the N2CX route through the QRPGuys

This is their Portable 40-30-20m Tri-Band Vertical Antenna, which uses a 16' 4" radiator along with four 10' radials. Looks like a pretty easy set up as well, even though it involves deploying radials.

Joe N2CX has been using a version of this on his NPOTA and POTA exploits. If memory serves me well, he was using his car as the counterpoise, instead of deploying wire radials. It has worked very, very well for him. So I'm willing to give this a shot, as I trust N2CX implicitly when it comes to antennas. If you compare Joe's antenna knowledge to mine - what I know about antennas wouldn't fill a hollowed out pea.

My favorite portable antenna to date has been the PAR ENDFEDZ 10/20/40 MKII. It has performed very, very well for me. It's reliable and easy to deploy - when you have a tree or some other tall support handy, as its radiator is 41' long. The problem comes in when you DON'T have a tall enough tree near by, or quite possibly, you're in a situation where you don't feel comfortable about throwing a wire in a tree. That usually means that I have to employ my Jackite pole as a sloper support, because PAR ENDFEZ 41' minus Jackite 31' = 10' too much wire.

Employing the Jackite as a sloper support means bungee-ing it to something suitable, or using my drive on mast support. And believe it or not, there are instances where neither of those solutions present themselves. So I'm hoping one of the above scenarios works as a decent alternative.

You have to be ready for any eventuality.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!