AX-1 Clone

Has anyone attempted a DIY / Clone of an Elecraft AX-1 antenna?

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Let me be the first one to not answer the question. Have you seen this?

HF MiniWhip Mobile Antenna QRP

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Also not exactly as asked, Andy, hi.
Just an addition to the AX1 in the form of a loaded AXW1 for 17-10 m.


And of course also the 60/40/30 m extender for the AX1.
Works excellently, e.g. much loved by Daniel@HB9IIO for the SOTA s2s “competition” and to collect dx raisins with a Sunday luggage, hi.


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Sure Andy, @MM0FMF

I have had this in my KX3 bag for years (and I made it long before AX1 existed).

I didn’t bother tuning it to resonance, it resonates somewhere around 9.5 MHz when the whip is fully extended. Autotuner in the KX3 makes it work on 40/30/20m.

We discussed this in another thread, some people swear by this type of antenna, I see it more as an emergency backup. I’m more a fan of lots of wire in the sky …

Luc ON7DQ

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I was prompted when I found a telescopic whip that extends to 1.4/1.5m and yes it’s for somewhere where deploying a “proper” antenna may not be easy but something is needed. I’ll find the old threads and read them again.

No I hadn’t. But it’s the kind of thing I was looking for.

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Hi Folks
I realized a AX1 clone that is resonant 1:1 in 20m band bypassing autotuner . The whip Is the a miracle antenna’s whip. All banda are available using the right contact on the coil and the automatic tuner. Excluding whip ,all materials are available in a brico shop.
During last cw 20m




activation in central Italy the reverse Beacon showed China and I confirmed qso with Indonesia (CT2VOC). Today I’ll upload the log.

Best 73
Iz0fyl Luca

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I had the opportunity to test the roWaves mini whip last weekend (the one in the link at the top of this thread).

I was surprised at the results.

https://youtu.be/eKtOPCJUPsg?si=_nGubI40c_BKwVWJ

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I’ve been informed that the roWaves website crashed last night. It seems to be working now.

HF MiniWhip Mobile Antenna QRP

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Hi
About my clone…
Coil diameter 2.5 cm
25 turns for 20m band
Wire 0.6 mm plastica sheat
Whip lenght less than 1.5 m for 2:1 swr
Tested using mini60s swrmeter and kx3 swrmeter
Other bands 18 MHz and up only whip and autotuner
30 m band 35 turns and autotuner
40 m band 70 turns and autotuner
73
luca

Report of last sota activities

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Was that your fault ? :slight_smile:

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I’m going to take the 5th on that.

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So I think I found the corect topic now. Hahaha.
@HB9BCB Heinz, can I use for your construction also toroids with the material 43? If you saw the video of Fraser with the MHW-4217 they used also a varicap…

@MM0EFI Fraser, your MHW-4217 worked great in your video!

@ON7DQ Luc, how happy are you with your DIY antenna?

I want to make a similar small antenna for more band, for fast QSOs or for very narrow peaks like in the dolomites.
I’m having an “ATX-1080” its a little bit to big for my use.

Thank you all!

PS: Found something pretty usefull:
https://vk3ye.com/projects/projped.htm

73
Julian

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Made a first Prototype:

SWR 1.5:1 without counterpoise for 20m

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I bought one of these recently on a trip to JA.
https://www.hamradiostore.co.uk/product/comet-hfj-350m-toybox-portable-antenna/
Last month on an activation, we had just pulled down the wire antenna and I received a text message from VK3PF for a summit to summit contact.
I got the Comet HFJ-350m out and was on air in less than a minute to complete the summit to summit.
So it did the job in that instance.
Cheers,
Glenn VK3YY.

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I am currently building 40-10 version. I hope to test it in the field soon. Tests at home look promissing.

73 Marek

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Marku, I built it 20 years ago. It worked fine on the roof of the car.

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So I came to a new idea. Im using now a 27MHz CB Antenna. They are on Aliexpress and the price is like 5$.
I’m building it as follow:

With the switch I can change for 10-20-40m.

Let’s see how it will work :wink:

73
Julian

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Nice work, Heinz!

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Julian

What’s the details on the coil and # of turns?
Grazie
John

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Hi John,

good question and tbh I tried it only for 20m until now.

I calculated the following data for my T 106-2:

20m: 9.0µh → 26 t
40m: 38µh → 53 t

But of course it depends of the core type, the diameter and the antenna length.

When my antenna arrives and I’m start building my loadcoilbox I will let u know how I did it.

73
Julian

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