I figure if I can't do it on 40, 20, or 2m in an emergency situation, it probably doesn't need doing. The bucket holds things like paracord and zip-ties, as well as a 2m slim jim made out of 450 ohm window line. It keeps it from tangling, which is a serious consideration here. I keep mine rolled up around a plastic Foldger's coffee bucket. It also only has two legs to worry about, a bonus when you're hanging it from the remnants of a pine tree. The up side is that it's more compact than a full-sized 40m dipole, not much bigger than a 20m dipole. You'll want to do that in your yard on a nice sunny day, not in the heat of Field Day or – heaven forbid – under austere conditions following a hurricane or whatever else befalls you. It's also a bear to adjust the first time out of the box. It covers the phone band, but needs clip-on pigtails to get down into the data band. The down side is a narrower bandwidth on 40m. Tuned once as an inverted V, it performs well without any additional tweaking. A convenient pine tree and some paracord completes things, though I occasionally use a push-up pole. Here's something similar, a 40/20m trap antenna that I use on Field Day and for camp-outs, or when I'm running from hurricanes: MFJ Enterprises Inc. But I had the space and figured what the heck. and replaced it with a 160M-2M version! Now that's long: 238 feet end to end. My 80M-2M version worked so well I took it down. For the 80M-2M version it's 134 feet or so end to end But every time we've been out in the field we've easily had trees and space that would handle it.
#Buddipole hf antenna portable#
So what are the negatives? Only one that I know of when you're comparing wire / portable antennas: an OCFD's elements are long. You'll find people asking, "Where's your antenna?" They are easily built or bought (Buxcomm, Buckmaster, others) Only needs to be up 15 feet or more (higher is better though. Exhibits some gain over a dipole / G5RV Operates nearly all ham bands between 80M and 2M WITHOUT a tuner. Length of coax from balun to radio doesn't matter. An OCFD goes up as easily as a dipole or a G5RV (more easily than the latter).
Sept VHF Contest (for HF in case VHF wasn't active enough)Įach time we had outstanding results for very little effort. This last year our newly-formed amateur radio club has participated in three major radio events in the field, and each time we put at least one OCFD: I'm always surprised by the number of hams who have never tried nor heard of the OCFD. Have you considered an Off-Center Fed Dipole? aka OCFD, Windom, Carolina Windom. When I get around to replacing the antenna I will be putting up a ZS6BKW version to give it a try. My G5RV came down of few weeks ago due to support line failure, tree bark is hard on para-cord. The ZS6BKW promises lower SWR without having to use a tuner. There is a revised version of the G5RV antenna, it is the ZS6BKW antenna, see link below: Also keep the twin lead away from metal objects. Run the twin lead section of the antenna away from the flat top at a ninety degree angle for as far as possible.
I have ran G5RV antennas and have had no issues, they work well when installed properly.
Tuning will be more critical with the buddipole because of the narrow band characteristics. The buddipole will be narrow banded and the radiation resistance, hence the efficiency, will be lower than the larger G5RV. The buddipole is a reduced size antenna on the lower frequency bands in comparison to the G5RV type antennas.
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