Every year I spend some holidays on the beach. In the past I chased from a park or a quiet place near my hotel. This year I decided to try chasing from the beach.
I knew I couldn’t use a long EFHW in such a crowded public space. I decided to try a short 3 meter vertical, base coil loaded for 14 MHz only.
A 3 meter pole is not that huge in a beach, although it was evident I wasn’t fishing!
Some people looked with curiosity but nobody asked me what was that for.
I put a single ground radial zigzagging around our towels and the beach umbrella. This is the homebrew cheap short coil (4 uH maximum) I put at the base, near the choke, easy to tune for a low SWR:
Today I chose a small, shady spot to experiment with the QMX 60-15 m on HB/BE-158, so only a small antenna was possible, which still allowed QSOs on 60 m with ON and DL … The antenna was a base-loaded 4.15 m long wire antenna, feed point at 1.20 m with 3 switchable coils, 2 guyed radials of 4.20 m each, ATU T1 remote tuned and 1:1 Guanella Balun.
You probably called me on 20 m, the signal was just about readable … a bit too weak for such a familiar QSO, hi.
Hello dear Heinz,
I saw your spot, went to your QRG and heard a low station; I called but no luck this time. There were local storms in EA and the band was noisy today.
I hope you enjoyed your QMX. Your setup is very nice, as usual !
Thanks for sharing pics. Looking forward for a QSO soon.
Same QMX, same key, same cover… Would be curious to learn more about your short antenna (coils, and experience compared to full size wire), and if/how you fix the battery under the plate, for inspiration…
To answer your questions: In the photo you can just see the anti-slip stoppers (fix-o-moll) glued to the setup under the battery and 2 short posts to the side. This holds the battery perfectly in place when a Velcro strip is tightened around the setup.
The short antenna with omnidirectional characteristics and flat radiation angles for a light 6 m carbon mast was built years ago for experimental purposes.
Because I am very familiar with it, it was also used to test the QMX 60-15 m “Tune SWR” utility.
My favorite antenna for the QMX 60-15 m will be, not surprisingly, the 10.90 m inv-L multiband antenna, originally designed for the special needs of Bruno, HB9CBR, for portable radio at SOTA and FF with the Elecraft KX2/KX3 with built-in ATU.
I also use the inv-L antenna, together with fixed L-matches, with the Mountain Toppers MTR3B. This simple and lightweight solution for 40/30/20 m also works well with the QMX.
As an ATU with the QMX 60-15 m an Elecraft T1 is used, together with the existing impedance matching elements from the KX2/KX3 (60/20 m or/and 60 m/ Hi-Z).
