Hi,
I hope to be on Herzogstand DL/EW-022 today (29th. December 2015) around noon local (1100 UTC), as this is a busy summit for hill walkers, I have decided not to take the fibreglass pole and dipole, rather the vertical on a tripod. As this configuration is not as efficient and as I will only be running the FT817 barefoot (5W), I will be relying on the chasers antenna systems, so if you see a spot for me, please swing your beam around my way. If you have your location registered in SOTAWatch, the summit page will tell you the beam heading here: Hiking in the mountains: tips for beginner hikers - Mountain Day
I intend to be mainly on 10m (28.370 SSB) - hope to work many chasers later.
I am not happy with the performance of my loaded vertical on a tripod antenna, but with the number of the people on the summit, setting up a fibreglass pole and dipole would not have been possible.
It was a beautiful day and warm when in the sun but cold when in the wind.
I completed my 30 minute activation with a total of 14 contacts including 3 S2S and 4 contacts on 10 metres.
I am feeling a few pains today as I go fairly hard on climbs, for example from getting in the cable car in Walchensee to getting to the summit took me 40 minutes, where I think 1 hour is more “normal”.
A lot of people had their dogs with them, so next year my dog (Bonnie) will most likely come along, perhaps not right to the summit but onto the mountain with my wife anyway (there’s a nice Gastatte about 10 minutes from the top station of the cable car.
For others visiting this part of Germany, this is a relatively easy climb to the summit from the cable car and the views are amazing.
I will post my usual blog report in the next couple of days at DD5LP.COM.
if you make a vertical dipole, centre fed, in the style of the “flower pot” vertical (so named because the original builder mounted his pole in a flower pot on his balcony, making it a kind of stealth antenna for vhf) you would have a really good vertical antenna for 10m on a 7m pole, with no radials and just vertical bits. Ideal for activations on summits with limited space. See Andrew VK1AD’s blog for details of his. Another alternative is the modified Jpole, using coaxial cable. Again, no radials so just vertical elements. Might well work better than the loaded vertical with limited radials.
Hi Andrew,
But what supports the 7m squiddy? It still can need guy ropes when there’s no solid post to strap it to - hence the same problem when there is limited space and lots of walkers/climbers. Plus that’s the 7m squiddy that needs to be carried extra - it wont fit in my small rucksack as the tripod and loaded vertical do.
Also in the case of my Herzogstand activation, I only realised at my next activation, that the rig had been running at only 2.5w out not the normal 5w, so perhaps the loaded vertical was performing quite well for the reduced power. It certainly works a lot better now that I have counterpoise wires and (when space allows) extension wires for the top of the whip for 20 & 40m.
My experience with small bottom loaded whips (the ATX-1080 in particular) is that they can work quite well on higher bands (20 m and up), mounted on a small tripod or ground peg. Radials cut for the appropriate length are an absolute must; don’t let your SWR meter fool you.
However, I always found tuning the whip a bit fiddly, being influenced by three different things (whip length, loading coil setting and number/length/layout of radials). So nowadays I use an AlexLoop as a small portable antenna for space-restricted or crowded summits, or when time doesn’t permit erecting poles or throwing wires in trees. Still requires tuning, but at least there’s only one knob to turn (even if that one can be super sensitive on higher bands ;)), and there are no radials to stumble over.
Ed,
in that case it is indeed rather difficult and an antenna mounted on the tripod appears to be the only practical way to use a band requiring a long antenna. I don’t know anything about the location of course. Perhaps one of the compact squid poles that will go into your backpack is an option.
You certainly travelled a distance to reach that one.
Cheers
Andrew VK1DA