Posted: 9/18/2014 5:53:32 PM EDT
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I wondered how well my Tarheel II would work as a ground mount. Well, pretty good. My first contact was with a station in Madrid Spain from St. Louis, MO. on 20m with a 59 report on the first call.
The rig is mounted on a 36" copper ground rod with 18" above ground . . . 
Each of the six radials is just over 8 feet long. 
I'm beginning to believe that you could drive a nail into a tree and have it work. |
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Quoted: I personally know a guy who worked France with 50w and a lawn chair. I was there, and about shit myself. |
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Two field days ago, I did the very same thing. I bought the Tarheel radial plate and made 48 1/8th wave radials cut for 40 meters. I also used an MFJ impedance match device to match feed line impedance and then I used the tuning coil to take care of resonance. I was amazed to work KH6 after midnight!
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nice --how much power were you running ? looks similar to to my qrp vertical except I need to add radials and mine sits on a camera tripod. I thougt about using an ground rod cut off at an angle driven into the soil as a mount gonna have to give it a try now .... I am using one like this with my 817. (this is not mine just stole the image from the mfrs site)  |
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Quoted:
nice --how much power were you running ? looks similar to to my qrp vertical except I need to add radials and mine sits on a camera tripod. I thougt about using an ground rod cut off at an angle driven into the soil as a mount gonna have to give it a try now .... I am using one like this with my 817. (this is not mine just stole the image from the mfrs site)http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMDY2/$(KGrHqIOKpME5kVNCCzQBOlv6yBJDw~~60_57.JPG I was running 100 watts. That's one LONG whip in the photo. Do you have a link to the manufacturer? I have a 102" whip that I've thought about trying. |
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Quoted:
I was running 100 watts. That's one LONG whip in the photo. Do you have a link to the manufacturer? I have a 102" whip that I've thought about trying. Quoted:
Quoted:
nice --how much power were you running ? looks similar to to my qrp vertical except I need to add radials and mine sits on a camera tripod. I thougt about using an ground rod cut off at an angle driven into the soil as a mount gonna have to give it a try now .... I am using one like this with my 817. (this is not mine just stole the image from the mfrs site)http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMDY2/$(KGrHqIOKpME5kVNCCzQBOlv6yBJDw~~60_57.JPG I was running 100 watts. That's one LONG whip in the photo. Do you have a link to the manufacturer? I have a 102" whip that I've thought about trying. google image search came up with only one hit: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-All-Band-HF-VHF-Antenna-System-Ham-Radio-Marine-Short-Wave-Shtf-Qrp-NEW-/221436809472 |
I just put the 102" whip on mine. It works fine on 17m and lower, but it won't tune on 15,12, 10, and 6m -- as you would expect. For me the 56" whip is the best compromise. I don't do a lot on 6m, so I don't care that it won't tune there. Having reasonably good to excellent performance between 10m and 40m is enough for me. Plus, 56" is a lot easier to pack around than 102" -- so she says. 
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Quoted:
I used an MFJ Collapsible whip that's 17' long on top of mine when we were at Field day. i use the 12ft version(think that's how tall it is) on my PAC-12 antenna. works great, the only down side is you have to change coils and adjust the whip to change bands but its pretty quick once you have the measurements. |
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its a great lakes antenna they have a store on Ebay that one runs about $100 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-All-Band-HF-VHF-Antenna-System-Ham-Radio-Marine-Short-Wave-Shtf-Qrp-NEW-/221436809472 the whole thing takes down to about an 18in long package I store it in a 3in PVC pipe section with one end cap glued on one not. stows on the side of my pack. works very well with my 817/ldg tuner the Tarheel setup looks similar except you dont have to move the coil tap and the whip is obviously not as long. I was busy today getting stuff around the house ready for winter I will try to get it set up and on the air for some portable qrp work |
| just about the same amazement here today. main antenna, mutiband end fed running way up into a tree over top of my house, is currently down while roof was replaced. listening on an 80m W8AMZ reduced 80m sloper today that didn't have to come down, fed with cheap coax and grounded very basically. thought what the hell and the LDG tuner on my 897D tuned it up fine on 20m and i made a hand full of 5/9 contacts from coast to coast just about an hour ago. had to laugh after spending so much time earlier running better coax to re-set my end fed soon... |
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Quoted:
I personally know a guy who worked France with 50w and a lawn chair. I was there, and about shit myself. I once worked Japan on a light bulb connected instead of antenna ( old trick to roughly measure tx power on a tube radio). Got 59 report. This was on 10 meters during the peak of the solar cycle in the late 1980s. |
I blame this thread for my new portable antenna. 
My fiancee had an extra old tripod laying around that has since been replaced. I flipped the main center body upside down and it gave a perfect upright to clamp a LTMT-1 to. A few ground radials later and I have a perfect beach/vacation vertical.
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