I really like my off center fed, it works super on 80, 40, 20, 17, 12, 10, and 6 meters and I have even used it on 15, 30, and 60 meters via the tuner.  It will even work on 2 meters without a tuner !  My homebrew guanella balun is wound on 2 FT240-61 cores and then I have 24 ferrite mix 43 cores on the feedline right below the balun to help choke of any CMC.  I like working DX on 40 meters the most with it and even worked Australia many times with it on 40 - about 10000 miles !

Subject says it all, so lets hear from everyone - what HF portable antenna do you use with a good description.

I'm glad I live in the sticks because cows don't mind how much wire you string up as long as its high enough for them to walk under.  But if I didn't I would use a magnetic loop for sure, I've got a couple I built and they work super even when sitting close to the ground !  Even got plans to motorize one of them for remote tuning !

Too many antennas used with 100W actually only radiate a few Watts.. Everyone touts their horns about them, they work great!.. No, QRP works, many "magic" antennas suck. <snip>

Yeah, feed line loss due to mismatch on the feed line, losses through a balun or unun, losses through the tuner, and losses due to the antenna being too short all add up.  A loss of 3db is half your power and I'm sure some of these antennas exhibit losses greater than that !  A mobile whip that is tuned to frequency can exhibit efficiency levels of 10% to 15%, so you know how lossy and inefficient a non resonant mobile size antenna can be !

That's cool, now if I can ever find affordable internet in my area maybe I could play with such things !  Don't even have cell service in my area unless I drive about a mile away and up on the ridge !

What is a skimmer ? ???

Quote from: km4mcm on December 27, 2015, 06:28:35 AM
I looked at their site. There no specs on the antenna I could see.

Sent from my QMV7A using Tapatalk

The Eagle One is basically a 40 meter quarter wave vertical - 33' of wire inside a telescopic fiberglass pole.  With the use of a tuner at the feedpoint (Icom AH-4, SGC-237 etc) it can be used on other bands.  Some folks are using it with a tuner in the shack by adding a 4:1 balun at the feedpoint but that causes a lot of loss in the feedline due to a high swr on the feedline.  By putting a tuner at the feedline the coax is operated in a matched situation and losses are much lower.

Quote from: cockpitbob on August 04, 2016, 08:27:09 AM

Quote from: Lamewolf on August 04, 2016, 08:08:11 AM

Quote from: cockpitbob on February 17, 2016, 10:19:58 PM
This month's QST magazine does a 2 page write-up on the Hyend 80-10 meter EFHW antenna.  Basically, it works and the losses are so low they really couldn't measure it accurately. 

Like I said, I've designed  several of these things but I never got this wide a frequency range or high power handling. 

What type of coupler are you using Bob and what ratio ?  I've experimented with a lot of baluns and ununs and can get a very wide frequency range with them, but they are a fixed ratio of course.

I'm using a home-brew wide band transformer 3 turns & 21 turns (49:1 impedance ratio).  At 28MHz it is a little big and the parasitics get in the way.  At 3.5MHz and 100W there's too much flux in the core and it saturates.  I could have used a bigger core and gotten 3.5MHz but the larger parasitics would have lowered the top end.

I figured a high ratio, but on those you lose at one end to get the other.  I've played with the transformers some and could never get them to work the way I wanted them to.  Are you using ferrite cores - 43s or 61's or powdered iron ?  I'm thinking of playing with some using powdered iron because they don't saturate as easy, that is if I ever get time to do so.

Quote from: cockpitbob on February 17, 2016, 10:19:58 PM
This month's QST magazine does a 2 page write-up on the Hyend 80-10 meter EFHW antenna.  Basically, it works and the losses are so low they really couldn't measure it accurately. 

Like I said, I've designed  several of these things but I never got this wide a frequency range or high power handling. 

What type of coupler are you using Bob and what ratio ?  I've experimented with a lot of baluns and ununs and can get a very wide frequency range with them, but they are a fixed ratio of course.

What is the shackle on the threaded stud for in the third picture down ?

Quote from: gil on August 03, 2016, 06:42:26 PM

Quoteit would be interesting to run a sweep on with an analyzer to see if there are any useable spots without a tuner

I should be able to do this in October..

Gil.

I'm sure you will find some resonant points but on what frequencies will be the big question.  Since its designed to be used with a tuner, I hope they at least made it so that the swr is somewhat low on the ham bands to assure at least a little bit of efficiency.  It would be nice if it was at least no more than 3:1 in the ham bands anyway !  BTW, is this thing rugged enough to use mobile ?

The ZM-2 tuner is on the way, mailed the morning after I ordered! That is what I will use with the MPAS. I am not wondering about SWR without a tuner because it is a simple UNUN not designed to be used without one. <snip>

I realize its not designed to be used without one, but it would be interesting to run a sweep on with an analyzer to see if there are any useable spots without a tuner !  Whats the cost on something like that  ?

Quote from: RadioRay on July 30, 2016, 09:21:19 PM
Very good preliminary review.  It all begins with materials and craftsmanship. If it 'works' but breaks or degrades too quickly, it is not work the price.  this looks rather impressive and -yes- as you pointed-out 'full mil'  no, HOWEVER, very-very rugged and head and shoulders above 'ham gear' - it seems so. I appreciate that you know the right sort of questions to ask about equipment and it's use.

The more that I look at that heavy-duty clamp mount, the more that I like it!  As you know, I have a heavy background in military and adventure radio as well as manufacturing, so I LIKE what I see in this material review. Reminds me of the QRP contact on thirty meters between us, with your mini-vertical mounted on the coffee table in your flat.   ha ha 

I am looking forward to your initial test reports and then your trail reports.


72 de RadioRay  ..._  ._

I like the way you do things in the field Ray.  From a survival shelter and simple wire antennas, and I won't mention others things I saw in those Ron Hood videos ! LOL
kc8aon

Looks to be very well constructed, but I'm wondering what the swr curves look like without a tuner, which I'm sure you must use with it ?  I'm very frugal (yeah, cheap) so I almost always use simple wire antennas when working portable/qrp.  No trees, No problem, I just take my 31' Jackite telescopic fiberglas pole along and use it as a support.  Anyway, lets hear about how your new toy performs after you've had a chance to try it out.
kc8aon

Quote from: gil on August 03, 2016, 01:19:39 PM
And that is why I never felt pin pricks in my fingers using EFHW antennas, but was bit a few times with random wires..
Gil

Correct, very little to no current at your end on the EFHW, but lots of current possible with a random wire !
kc8aon