portable antennas

Working portable or mobile requires the amateur to use an antenna/antenna system with the greatest possible efficiency. This is especially important when working qrp/p. It's easy to get side tracked from this very important issue with all manner of very short loaded antennas or short antennas with matching networks at the base that are available which seem very appealing to getting on the hf bands with a very small footprint.. Ok these antennas do seem to work as in they will radiate some of your power and people do make contacts on them but they are far from having good efficieny.Why make life harder when /p and especially qrp. A 100 watt /p set up is slightly different as in contacts will still be made even on an antenna system of only 10 percent efficiency. A 5 watt set up, which is full power from an 817 to an antenna system with 10 percent efficiency and you may as well go home.Overlook this very important point and you may find those days of anticipation at what contacts could be had whilst portable may well be spoilt with the day spent shouting down the mic in frustration.

Whats required from /p antenna ?

This is a personal choice and people will require different things from a portable antenna depending on their requirements. Some people may want to sit on a hill top or somewhere off the beaten track and need to fit everything in a rucksack. Others may simply take everything in a car or van so heavy poles/masts and beams are not a problem.The aim of the portable antenna should be the same for any situation and thats efficiency. For me i want everything to fit in my rucksack.I dont mind carrying a lightweight telescopic pole but thats really all the extra equipment i would want to carry apart from the rucksack. I want multiband coverage without the need for an atu although i do carry an atu. There are many good examples of lightweight portable antennas with things like simple dipoles,end fed and random wires along with long wires and verticals all of which can be carried quite easily along with a small atu if multiband coverage is required and to be honest probably don't take up much more room than a short wonder antennas like the atx and miracle whip to name just two.

The simple dipole/doublet

You really can't go wrong with this antenna. Its simple to construct,lightweight and efficiency is very high in th 90's. It can be used /p even if only one support is available in the inverted v configuration or horizontal between two supports ( trees or buildings). The doublet does't need to be of any particular length as doesn't the feeder but may benefit from certain lengths to aid tuning depending on your tuners matching range.The dipole can be monoband, again very easy to construct with no atu needed and the ability to coax feed with feeder losses minimal. Dipoles can give some very suprising results even when strung quite low and european contacts should be no problem.I have worked Europe on end fed wires strung along hedges on 5 watts ssb before today.I have a multiband dipole which requires no atu and is coax fed which takes very little room up in the rucksack and only requires my telescopic pole to be dropped and a pigtail arrangement connecting or disconnecting on the antenna for band changing. (see dipole 2 section).

I played around with short vertical antennas and some commercial short loaded antennas aimed at qrp portable ops but found these were ok for a bit of a play or on the higher bands but for a reasonable chance of making a /p day out worth while these really shouldn't be relied on.At the end of the day if your out /p on a hill top or in the sticks why waste time with a 4 foot antenna stuck to the back of the rig or some other inefficient antenna just for convienience when a dipole or a doublet or end fed will only take slightly longer to erect and will yeald many more contacts guaranteed.By all means have a play with the short miracle type antennas. I like to experiment with these type of antennas and will take one along with me /p for a play or if i decide to take my radio to the park for instance where making contacts is not the main aim of the day.