I suffered the same problems for donkey’s years due to sitting too close to the ground (so my legs were nearly straight out) either on the ground or on a low rock. A year ago, I got a Helinox portable chair (with anti-sinking groundsheet option) and have used it on every activation (bar a few stand-up ones). I’ve said goodbye to leg stiffness, cramp and butt ache. Now it’s the cold rather than aches and pains that limits my activation time.
It’s expensive but very high quality, very quick to assemble & disassemble, packs down to a large water bottle size, and very lightweight [Other good makes are available!]
I get the chair, bothy bag, winter clothes, water bottle, radio kit – including Cha MPAS Lite vertical – in a 20l rucksack, 7-9kg the lot.
There’s a counterpoise-wire included in the package, which is wound up on a winder. There are markings for each band on the counterpoise, and you simply unwind the wire up to the mark for the desired Band - the rest of the wire remains on the winder. There is a banana socket on the rugged antenna-adapter, where you attach the counterpoise. To achieve the highest possible efficiency, we attach the counterpoise at approx. 1m above the ground as elevated radial; we use Carine’s normal hiking poles and simply thread the wire through the two tabs - but you could also simply place it over a willow pole or similar.
Yes, we will operate again the ELECRAFT-Booth at the HAM RADIO in Friedrichshafen - BTW we’re Official ELECRAFT-Distributor for the European market. For your information we ship to the whole world, and if you’re interested in HB9NBGs Clever-Whip Kit Package, Carine can send you a quote with shipping-costs to you in 9N-Land included
BTW: The whole Package of HB9NBGs Clever-Whip Kit with the Clever-Stick-Tripod included is not more than around 1kg weight
Make sure to visit the SOTA booth at the Ham Radio and meet a punch of people from the reflector for eyeball QSO.
Have a look at the “One-radial” L-Antenna / Upper-Outer Vertical_L
Due to the elevated radial the round impact gets reduced an the antenna is more robust in deployment with good SWR
Yes, as I wrote already HB9NBGs Clever-Whip Kit is a Full-Size-Antenna-system; that means, that both the Telescopic-Whip and the counterpoise-wire will be extracted respectively unwound 1/4 wavelenghts corresponding to the Band. The antenna is tuned to resonance with a few simple steps. And yes, more than one counterpoise-wire would help to make the antenna perfectly omnidirectional - but with only one wire you’re able to make a little bit more gain in your favorite direction We’re not yet sure, whether we will sell things at our booth in Friedrichshafen officially, or whether we only will demonstrate it and take pre-orders and ship it after. But please let us know in advance, if you’re interested; this way we can bring 1 Pcs of Kit for you for sure
I’m not going to be the guy to say that an EFHW is a dipole, it’s just fed at the end and not in the middle, but I was tempted!
But the point has merit, the typical dipole, as the term is normally understood, is going to be more efficient and probably better performing than an EFHW on the same band. The downside is that by center feeding, you are decreasing the number of resonant bands available by a factor of 2 since dipoles are only resonant on the odd harmonics. So where a 40m EFHW will get you 40, 20, 15, and 10m without the need for a tuner, the 40m dipole will only allow you to do 40 and 15 without a tuner. Of course, that can be changed with the inclusion of traps or links, the former requiring more time to tune the traps and antenna and the later requiring more effort on the summit to change bands by opening and closing the links. you will also need feedline for the centerfed (or offsenterfed for that matter too) dipole whereas you can easily connect an EFHW/RW firectly to the radio without feedline, further reducing weight in the pack.
You could also consider something like a moxon for the higher bands. Carying a 6m, 10m, or 15m moxon plus a mast is not out of the question for SOTA and many people use them. You’ll get more directionality and gain as compared to a vertical, EFHW/RW, or traditional dipole. If you really want to go all out, high frequency beam antennas for SOTA are possible and are awesome to use at elevation. You will just be lugging more weight up the trail and your going to be limited to whatever band it is designed for.
As a SOTA activator, the odds are stacked in my favour. I alert, spot and then work a load of stations who are looking for me on my frequency and listening for my callsign, despite my lossy coax, auto-transformer, low slung wire and QRP output level.
Yes, noted by Fraser and others. I feel it is pointless striving for an antenna with gain for SOTA, time lost assembling it and carrying the extra materials does not to me seem worthwhile, certainly in Europe it isn’t necessary. If you are looking for gain for a special event I guess, such as the transatlantic challenge in which case, its probably worth ithe extra effort.
Try calling CQ with a similar set up to what Fraser suggests without POTA, SOTA or whatever OTA in your CQ call and you would probably struggle to work four stations in half an hour!
Now try that in 9N, where your chasers are 7000km away, there’s an 8000m high wall of rock between you and them, and there are no RFI/EFI restrictions on imported consumer electronics so as soon as someone plugs in their cell phone charger your receiver emits a sound not unlike a nest of hornets with a nasty hangover.
On FT8, my QSOs regularly happen at -21dB, which is the limit of intelligibility.
Spot on the DX cluster. I did that from the beach in 8P (Barbados) and worked EE, N.Am. and S.Am. every time. EFHW up 5m with 10w or 35w. 15m and 10m SSB.
In cities or villages I believe you, but when activating on a mountain, at kilometers from any habitation, the RFI of small electronics cannot reach you.
And the mountains are often not an obstacle. First they are not 8000m wall, since you operate already in altitude. Lets say you are on a 3000m summit. Then even with a good DX antenna and a takeoff angle as little as 20°, you only need to be 14 km away from the 8000m mountain for your radio waves to pass over. As far as I see on the map, 3000m mountains are 50km away from the 8000s so its plenty space for the wave to pass … or ?
Just out of interest where in the SOTA database are you recording your contacts please, so I can see what is workable from Nepal? India, Japan, China and possibly VK/ZL methinks?
How far are they walking, or are we talking “drive ons” in which case I can understand the reason for erecting a Moxon on a mast, otherwise these Hams are making a proverbial rod for their own backs!