Counterpoise wires OR radials are a big help. They usually work better if elevated a foot or so, but this can be a dangerous situation to passers by AND operator of the station as well! Kids will ALWAYS get fouled up in them unless you are somewhere that is isolated from the usual inquisitive passer by. Length? that varies with ground you lay them on, conductivity of the soil, many arcane factors! I used to use at least 3 laid on ground made from "loud" striped small guage hookup wire. The MIL-SPEC stuff that is usually white with red/yellow/black tracer stripes. If you work the "low bands" (80/40/30 meters) placement sometimes get harder than shorter wires that can be used for higher bands (20-10 meters). SOmetimes a 30-40 foot long radiator will suffice for general use although I like to use an 85-90 foot "antenna" for 80/40, and the shorter 30-40 footer for the higher bands. Vertical or an "inverted L". Have been using an MFJ 33' telescopic fibreglass mast that is easy to transport and can be erected and lashed with bungee to a garden type hand tiller tool that can be easily "planted" in ground with no rocks. Trees, hedges can be used for supports of there is no other way to suspend the wire. A small "L" section tuner can be easily constructed with a common dual 365 pf tuning capacitor and a coil wound on PVC pipe with make a handy antenna tuner (required in ALL instances!) You will be surprised at what you can do with QRP and jury rig antennas! Nothing beats having several coiled up bundles of hookup wire in various lengths (16, 33, 45, 85, 120') for the "radials" or the radiators. Some of the "Buddy pole" setups seem to work well sometimes not! For the most part I've found them to be more of a bother to erect and use and work no better than the right length radiator and counterpoise system at a fraction of the price of a BUddypole. No two locations are the same, so it is VERY difficult to describe what will work and what doesn't. I have worked DX like mad on 20 meters around midnight when the band is open with 5 watts QRP in a wood frame house with a 20' length of hookup wire hanging from push pin tacks at the junction of ceiling and wall. Counterpoise in this case, a wire running around the baseboard of the room. The "key" is trying it and you will find out what does and what doesn't work. I have had some very good results from the Elecraft T1 mini auto tuner working with my K1. The T1 has a MUCH greater matching range than the internal KAT1 tuner by the way!
Long and short of it is I always use "some" kind of counterpoise/radial system, even if only one wire. Always use an "end fed" radiator that goes right to the "hot" terminal of the tuner output. No coax, no twinlead which is an awful liability mechanically to work with. Small light coax can have awful losses on an untuned dipole which can be a disaster when you are playing with 5 watts or less. Keep it light, keep it simple and EXPERIMENT. NO two setups are the same! 73, Sandy W5TVW Used to use HW-7, HW-8, HW-9 portable, Ten Tec "PM" series DC rigs, Tec Tec Argonaut, homebrewed stuff. My favorite still is the Elecraft K1! -----Original Message----- From: Ronald Nutter Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2012 1:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Elecraft] Counterpoise vs ground wire ? I am putting together a portable QRP kit that I can fly on a plane with me. Looking at several different antennas. With being a portable operation, what has worked best for some of you to ground the radio ? I am seeing references to some of the antennas that they need a counterpoise wire. Is this in addition to a ground wire ? Ron KA4KYI ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2180 / Virus Database: 2437/5104 - Release Date: 07/01/12 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
