Category Archives: Antennas

Posts that discuss antennas.

New England QSO Party – From Bobcat Ridge

This past weekend, I took the Mountain Topper radios (3B and 5B) to Bobcat Ridge and worked a bunch of stations.  In this video, I show my antenna setup and work 5 or 6 stations. At the end of the video, I show all of the stations I worked.

Not bad for 3 watts and a wire antenna.  I was only transmitting for about 90 minutes, total.  The various contests running this weekend made it super-easy to work QRP!

Build a Portable Hexbeam Antenna

In this video, I show you the portable hexbeam antenna I recently built. I discuss all of the components that are required to build one.

This is a great antenna that is a bit of a PITA to deploy… it has more parts and requires more setup time than a typical wire antenna. But, for special occasions, when you want a nice directional antenna to deploy in the field, this is what you need.

 

Deploy-Anywhere Vertical Antenna

This is my go-to vertical antenna that I can deploy anywhere with no support structure needed. (No trees or mast required)

Use it to work 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m… and probably 6m (although I’m not a 6m guy).

Where to get the items I show in the video…

The radiating element is an MFJ-1979 stainless steel whip.
MFJ-1979 Whip

The small tripod is a Super Antenna TM1 Low Profile Tripod Portable Antenna Mount that you can find here:
TM1 Low Profile Tripod (click and scroll down)

The High Sierra “Jaws Clamp” can be found here:
High Sierra Jaws Clamp