I do a bit of wild / ultralight camping with a mate of mine and have been thinking about antenna solutions when up on the hills. I got to wondering, if I had a small QRP CW rig in my bag, but no way of setting up an antenna, would the metal tent pole tune up for emergency use ? Imagine you are caught in a snow storm on top of a mountain and have to get into your tent quickly......
My tent has a single folding aluminium lightweight pole, about 9 feet long, that arcs from one end to the other, im sure a Z Match type tuner would tune it up ok.... although it wont be particularly resonant so close to the ground and being so short. But who knows ? You only need one person to hear your distress call.
So if any of you are off camping, be sure to give it a try and report back.... im off in a few weeks hopefully to North Wales and will give it a little try. Possibly worthwhile as an experiment.
Certainly. You would use a 9:1 UNUN to get the impedance down to where the tuner can handle it...
Gil.
I was wondering if one of those Z Match type QRP tuners would work without the UNUN ?
The thing is, if you put the tuner at the radio, you'll have high cable losses. With the UNUN you lower those. Not as good as a 50-ohm match but better. Try with the tuner at the wire, but I would use a UNUN...
Gil.
Gil has a point about the end-fed antenna. Are you camping where there are trees? Just take a rock, tie a good cord on it and throw the rock across a tree limb. Hoist-up the end fed antenna, add a short ground connection and you are set. On 20 meters I have done low power SSB with a dipole about 5 feet off the ground. Get that same antenna 20 feet off the ground and a lot more people hear me. Antennas work much better when they are higher and longer!
Did you conduct this experiment?
If so:
How did you find the pole as an expedient antenna?
What results were obtained?
What would you do differently to enhance it's usability?