Last weekend I had the opportunity to hook up 2 different portable antennas
and try a comparison on the air. The 2 antennas were a 42-foot wire (with
32-foot counterpoise) and a 300-ohm twinlead-fed inverted V for 40m
supported by one of those SD20 fishing poles from World Radio.
The rig was the KX1 on 40 meters operating from a Gel Cell (3W output). I
used the built-in tuner for both antennas. A BNC-to-binding-post adaptor
was used for the wire, and the Elecraft balun was used with the inverted V.
Both antennas matched to 1-to-1.
The 42-foot wire received slightly lower signal reports than the inverted V,
but most people said that they could still hear me fine on the wire. To my
surprise, though, most people reported no real difference with and without
the counterpoise. I don't know if this was a circumstance of my particular
installation, but I would have thought that the counterpoise would make more
difference.
The KX1 was on the dining room table. The 42-foot wire went out through the
kitchen, over the door, and out to a tree limb over the deck. It was about 6
feet off the deck, for a total height of 12 feet or so - mostly horizontal.
The counterpoise was simply laying on the floor around the perimeter of the
room. The 20-foot pole was bungee-corded to the deck railing so the top of
the inverted V was about 25 feet off the ground. The twinlead was about 45
feet long. Each side of the antenna was 33-feet long.
The bottom line is that either antenna seems to allow for good QSOs and fun.
Both of the antennas are easy to put up and take down.
Next time I'll try 30m and 20m.
72,
John W2XS
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