Curron :
I am a long time Buddistick and K1 / KX1 user.
The stock antenna works very well given its physical size.
The quality of components, like everything from W3FF
Antennas is excellent and will certainly last a lifetime.
It may not be clear, but the Buddistick is fundamentally
just half of a Buddipole. If you purchase the Buddistick
and later decide that you want to upgrade to a full
Buddipole you can contact Budd and he will provide a
reasonable upgrade path. With the full Buddipole package
you have more flexibility.
I have lots of extra Buddipole arms and I like to
experiment so I often add extra arms below the
coil to improve efficiency on 40m.
What works very well is to use a longer whip
(I have a 9 foot Mil-Surplus shock-corded whip) with extra
arms to build a 12 ft plus antenna which the KX1 internal
tuner can match on 20m and 30m without any loading
coil in the antenna. I hook radials up to the KX1 and
then just run a short (2 to 3 foot ) wire to the base of the
Buddistick to feed it as an end fed 14+ foot vertical,
often attached to a picnic table with the optional
clamp accessory.
Adding the coil and tapping for maximum noise allows
this antenna to easily load on 40m. I have also used it
without the coil and clipped a 14 foot piece of wire to the
top and tossed the end into a small tree to make a 28 foot
long, more or less self supporting inverted L which will
match easily on 40M / 30m /20.
What I like about this antenna and my HB variants is that it
packs up quite small (will easily fit into bicycle paniers
or your suitcase) and you don't need to rely on finding
an operating location with trees in the right spot. It is very
modular and can be used in its stock configuration or you
can get creative.
Michael VE3WMB
P.S. The standard disclaimer doesn't quite apply. I do a little bit
of work for W3FF antennas so I am a bit biased, but it is truly
a labor of love.
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