It certainly is...

Gil.

Hello,

I can't help but share an interesting experience I had recently, operating my PRC-320 at a local park. I used the 2.5m whip with a counterpoise wire on the ground. Using the internal tuner I tuned for best output and got the needle on the meter at 12-O'Clock... That is a so-so match, and usually doesn't lead to a lot of contacts. A great match puts the needle at the 3-O'Clock position. Then I remembered the stream running nearby... Standing water really, home to quite a few rats and infested with mosquitoes but water nevertheless... Some connection must have been made between my remaining neurons because I threw the wire in the water... Bingo! 2:30 needle position on the dial! I got an immediate contact to Ukraine from the South on France using 25W into a short whip on 20m.

It's one thing to hear about the importance of grounding short verticals, but quite another to see the result before your eyes.

Gil.

Hi Gil and co.
Just joined today and would like to say helllo.
Not a radio ham but radio does pay the bills

Hi,

After some good success with the QRP-Guys vertical tri-band (20/30/40 m) antenna, I decided to give the 80/60m vertical antenna a try. I do not have much space and wanted to be able to use 80 meters. In short, it is a coil-loaded vertical with taps to select 80m, 75m and 60m bands. I built the antenna according to the instructions and found it had a high SWR on 80 meters. It could probably be tuned to a 1:1 SWR by taking some turns out of the coil, but that may sacrifice performance on 75m and 60m. I decided to leave the antenna as is, since my Elecraft K2's internal tuner can match the impedence without any difficulty. You do need to use the taps for 75m. The first time I tried the antenna on 75 meters, I forgot the set the tap and my tuner couldn't find a match.

I am in central CA and had no problem making several CW QSOs into Arizona and Washington with good signal reports at QRP power.  I could hear and see my signal clearly on the KFS WebSDR, located about 100 miles away. I didn't try SSB with the antenna yet, band conditions were bad and there was nobody I cared to talk to. (Lots of politics and ranting about former spouses, etc...)

Although not a product review, I think this is a good antenna for 80m regional communications. It's only $20, is extremely portable, has a very small foot print, and is very easy to set up. I look forward to trying this antenna in more situations and am curious if more radials will increase its performance.

I am curious to hear from others who have this antenna and their experiences. Especially if anyone gets this antenna to work on 80 meters without a tuner.

-Brian
KM6ZYC

https://qrpguys.com/qrpguys-portable-80-60m-vertical-antenna

High winds broke the line holding up my 80-10m dipole, leaving it laying in lower tree tops, AND it's pointed the wrong way to hear France.  However, I heard Gil veeeeery weakly while he was in Morse QSO with a German station.  Gil was using his home made magnetic loop on the balcony and MTR - 5 Watt transceiver! Unfortunately, I heard him probably at the end of the band opening, because by the time the Dk/F4 QSO ended, I tried calling him while he was fading fast. Of course, my RF noise level at this little country cottage is extremely LOW. His RF noise level in an apartment in a town  - I do not know, but local RF noise from chargers, displays, power supplies & etc.  can make a huge difference.

5W, homemade magloop on balcony, distance = 4196.5 mi (6753.7 km)

Food for Thought:   the German station Gil had talked with was easily readable, and -technically- could have relayed some short messages between Gil & I pretty easily. That could be handy in a grid down situation.

72 de RadioRay  ..._ ._