Going through a lot of very useful informations here, didn’t help me to chose what I need/want as light antenna addition to my IC705.
Right now I have chameleon hybrid mini (from my 7300) vertical. But that’s bit heavy.
Wonderwand wideband vertical, not sure keep it or return it… I have very mixed feelings.
Waiting for qrpguys 9:1 ununtena, will be used with mat705 tunner.
HF explorer mini, mostly used on the car and magnetic foot.
But… Im still looking for some wire antenna i can throw in my backpack, and carry together with me all the time when hiking. Ease to install, remove, no matter where I want to use it, hills, forest, park. I know its a bit of unicorn here, but all recommendations are welcomed.
As just about every wire antenna design has been discussed at great length on here, if you couldn’t find anything suitable then what you want probably doesn’t exist.
This is a subject that has many variable factors. I am also still seeking for an ‘optimal’ solution.
Here a couple of thoughts:
vertical antennas - heavier, pick up more man made noise, better for dx, easier to set up if you are in the middle of a forrest full of bushes, you might need a mast for wire verticals
EFHW antennas - with 21m or longer, not easy to handle in forrests, better than verticals, require an additional long radial unless you use the principle of the Fuchs antenna.
Haven’t tried dipoles yet, as the area here is full of bushes.
Sota is in my opinion not about having an all band trx with an allband antenna. It is more about reducing everything to a minimum. So small 1-2-3 band trx with low power consumption and antenna which are easy to setup and hopefully don’t have to be tuned. Don’t forget you have to carry everything over a - potentially -long distance!
Finding the right setup is a journey. It is very individual. Don’t think you will find a setup that fits all requierments.
Currently using a QCX mini + MP1 extended with a 3m whip on a tripod. Fits well for cw with a low power trx.
Every man and his dog has a different proposal. If you were to be more specific as to bands and DX distances the choice could be narrowed.
Ford Prefect, HGttG, said the answer was 42.
Well double it to be twice as good. An 84 ft wire in the air at whatever height and configuration you can manage plus a 42 ft counterpoise laid on the ground either under the radiator or run in any other direction will be resonated from 160 m thru to 6m with a decent ATU. Balun optional. In an emergency it will allow contacts on 2 m. Just don’t worry about the SWR or efficiency or radiation pattern or polarisation.
I’ve worked nearly 3,000 km on LP CW on 20 m with that simple wire so that should cover most chasers for you.
As Andy has said a million times the best antenna is the one you have.
Overthinking is becoming so common that I wonder if it’s a COVID lockdown symptom.
My recommendation - not meant very seriously.
Unfortunately a bit laborious and can only be used in pairs and in good winds
73 Chris
P.S. The 20m long efhw and a 1:49 unun - without a kite - is definitely recommended.
Many great tips and responses here, thank you all! Amazing community indeed. So to make it maybe easier, I noticed when traveling with my 7300(i know bit crazy, but visiting family, or staying hotels only) I’m often using FT8 on 20m. So I think, 40m - 10m should be enough. Obviously I would like to try Digital modes QRP as main point of interest.
Wow, never thought of a twin kite configuration. Nice touch I have seen an end fed wire used with a single kite on 160 m. There’s not a big margin between the kite falling and the operator straining to stay on the ground from what I saw.
Sorry, off topic. An efhw with unun has three advantages over the monopole when operating with a kite. No radials, current maximum is higher above ground and the statics are shorted via the unun.
73 Chris
I have a 705 and started off with the SotaBeams Tri-bander linked dipole. This works very well and needs no tuner. The downside is it is slow to change bands and the number of bands is limited. I now mostly use a Bandspringer end fed random wire from the same company and an ICOM AH-705 tuner. This is brilliant for rapidly changing bands and covers 10m to 80m. The AH-705 will work with a much shorter wire if you don’t want 80m or 60m. It isn’t the smallest ATU available but it works very well.
M0WIV how do you find the Bandspringer compares to the linked Dipole? I have both but have a lot more success with the Linked Dipole. For DX I find a simple Vertical/3 radials to be best out of all three (thanks Tom)!
I think the Bandspringer with the AH-705 tuner is very good at flexibility, in the sense of more or less any band is immediately available to you. Want to try 17m? A click and a whirr and your’re there. What about 60m? Another bit of clicking and that’s available too. I haven’t yet managed a QSO on 80m but I’ve used it on 60m successfully. It won’t tune to 6m but if I carried a shorter bit of wire it would.
The linked dipole has to be better I guess but from a summit I haven’t noticed any difference over the Bandspringer - and the latter is just so much easier to use. However, at my home QTH I do use the dipole because it does perform markedly better. This may be partially due to ground conditions - I live on a lot of non-conducting rock.
YMMV.
