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Reviews For: No counterpoise Antenna System

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : No counterpoise Antenna System
Reviews: 17MSRP: Aprox. $20.00
Description:
Highly portable, easily deployable, highly efficient. No ground coupling.
Product is in production
More Info: http://stores.ebay.com/The-Bell-Imel-Group-LLC_W0QQsspagenameZl2QQtZkm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00174.3
WA6FX Rating: 2009-03-03
Perfect Portable Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been having a blast with this antenna design. After purchasing one of these from Jeff's Ebay store I became curious about
how well this simple design works. It's probably the easiest antenna to make (even easier than a half-wave dipole), so
after researching the antenna and speaking to several people about it's design I decided to make several myself to experiment with.

Jeff sells them made out of low voltage landscape wire (heavy duty lamp cord), I opted to make mine out of 300 OHM ladder line. Couldn't be simpler, take whatever length of twin lead you are going to use (half wavelength or so) and at the center (halfway from one end or 1/4 wave length)
cut one side of the twin lead and strip it away. You end up with twin lead for half the antenna length and a single conductor
for the other half. The single conductor becomes the radiator and the twin lead section becomes the antenna's feed line. For best results attach the feed point directly to an antenna tuner.

Some argue that this is an end fed zep, I believe it is more of a parallel OCF dipole with interesting properties that both Pete Mills and LB Cebic have modeled and wrote about:
The parallel feeder acts as an impedance transformer that keeps the feed impedance down, so it never gets above a few hundred ohms over a wide range of frequencies. Most rigs' internal auto tuners will have no problem tuning this design. A 50 footer will easily tune 40-6 meters. A 33 footer (for my jackite pole) easily tunes 30-6 meters. The most interesting property of this design however is the radiation pattern: For all frequencies that the antenna will load up on, the distributed current maximum stays at or near the center of the antenna where the twin lead stops and the single conductor continues. This keeps the antenna radiation pattern very favorable and similar to that of a resonant half wave dipole, except unlike a half wave dipole antenna being used as multi band antenna, this favorable radiation pattern and current distribution remains intact over the full range of frequencies tunable for the antenna! This means nice, low angle radiation with decent gain over a broad range of frequencies (using a tuner) without having to adjust the antenna length!

This for me has become the ultimate portable antenna. One length of wire, end fed and broad banded, incredibly easy to deploy just about anywhere. I typically operate portable with a FT857D, a small battery operated LDG auto-antenna tuner with this antenna (50') plugged into it. Tunes up 40-6M no problem and performs well. What more could I ask for?


N2UGB Rating: 2008-07-18
10-20 model WITH counterpoise Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Because of space limitations, I use the 10-20 version of this antenna. It is outdoors but in a rather awkward configuration. Some sharp bends. On 20M I have no problem loading it through my QRP MFJ tuner. However, there was no way to get the SWR level down to an acceptable level on 17 meters. My Yeasu FT-817ND strongly objected.

So, I disregarded the no counterpoise required selling point and cut two of them. One for 17M and one for 20M. They are inside running along the room baseboard.

With their addition, I am now able to tune 17M without a problem. While 20M wasn't a problem, I decided to keep that counterpoise anyway.

I give it a 5 rating because it does what is supposed to do. It isn't advertised as equal to a good half-wave dipole. But it does the job for me. If this antenna were properly configured I, probably, wouldn't need the counterpoise.
WA6MOW Rating: 2008-01-12
It works well. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use this antenna on camp trips in the Mojave desert. I sling shot it over the tallest Joshua tree in the area (maybe 15 ft. high) and kick back in my lounge chair. I use a tuner and an Icom 703 or my new FT-817nd. The last trip out in Oct 07 , using the 817 I worked lots of stations on 80, 40, 30 and 20 cw. What a kick. It works better than my ham sticks. It is light and travels nicely.
VY1GP Rating: 2007-07-06
Versatile, convenient Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
There is a lot of RFI in my neighbourhood. It affects the lower bands and I can't hear much over the background noise. This antenna helps solve the problem inexpensively.

When I want to get a couple of hours of clear signals, I jump in my van or car, drive 3 minutes to the edge of the subdivision with my antenna. In less than 5 minutes I set it up as a sloper, using a portable extending 30' fibreglass mast. I lean the mast against some small trees and drape the rest of the antenna over trees and bushes back to the radio on my dash. It works very well with a portable antenna tuner - manual or automatic. I checked it with a portable analyzer as well and there is excellent SWR with the manual tuner. It takes 2 or 3 minutes to take it down and roll up neatly for next time.

George VY1GP

VR2UIX Rating: 2007-04-23
Simple and good, should have one. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have built the 25 foot long version with some cheap speaker wire (HK$1.00 per yard)for 20 to 10 meter operation. The construction was easy and simple, no special tools and technique required. It must be used with an ATU in order to make the transceiver feels happy and my MFJ 904 does this job very well.

This antenna works very well from my QTH. I just hang it on my window handle-bar with some nylon rope as insulator then drop it down vertically from my bedroom on 6 story height. I used it with my FT897D and 100 watts to QSO with an America Samoa station on 20 meter with both 59 signal report exchanged. The distance from Hong Kong to America Samoa is about 8,900km. Amazing.
KC8TUA Rating: 2007-03-25
RF in shack Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I tried this in the shack and on my first floor apartment patio several times but got a lot of RF. I ran the antenna to a tree with fishing line and got less RF but would not load on 20m. on my Icom 746. Could not make any contacts I gave up. Very disapointed with my new GENERAL LIC. I have waited 30 years to get and no contacts. I ordered a MP1 From Gigaparts and got my first HF contact on 3/23/07. My radio is grounded with a 2ft. rod and a 2ft. strap. I will keep the no counterpoise antenna and play with it at at a later date but I would not buy it again.
OE3SGU Rating: 2006-10-15
Nifty - and it works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought one from Petes ebay shop and shipping was done very fast. The unit is good built and yes it really works, guess i take it with me to my next holiday. Of course its not a substitute to a "real" antenna like a dipole or a good vertical, but a very good and cheap compromise with overall performance.
KC5EJT Rating: 2006-06-07
OK but needs a ground Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I tried it without a counterpoise as the sellers recomends, but I had RF in the shack when running 250 watts. But I simply connect the dead end
of the feedline portion to the window frame (it's aluminum) where the antenna goes out of the house, and voila no rf in the shack.

Can't defy the laws of physics, it needs a counterpoise, though not much of one.
The science behind the need for a ground is here in W8JI's site:

http://tinyurl.com/lofgz

K7EDE Rating: 2006-02-01
inexpensive, easy, works! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got into CW and have tried a homebrewed St. Louis Vertical (SLV) with some success doing QRP in the backyard. Like a lot of others, I have to have a temporary antenna--and the easier and quicker it is to use, the more I'll be on the air.
I found the SLV, even after modification, to be a little hard to tune--and very sharp. It had to be retuned for every slight frequency change. It also took some effort to lay out the radials and coil them up again. So...I came across a mention of this antenna being used with my tuner (Emtech ZM-2) and bought one.
The antenna was shipped quickly and I was impressed by the workmanship. I had a question about using it and Jeff from the company quickly answered me by email.
I tried it out today in the backyard--not putting too much effort into the setup. I ran it from a picnic table over to a tree--laying the antenna right over a branch--and then up to the an eave about 25 ft. up. That's it. For about 10 ft, from the table to the tree, the antenna was almost on the ground.
And yet it easily tuned up. And stay tuned unless I made a big frequency change. (If you're familiar with this type of tuner, there's an LED that goes out to indicate minimal SWR--in this case the light went completely out and stayed that way unless I really moved the knob.)
I made a daytime contact on 40m with a station in Banning, CA, about 270 miles away, with 4 watts and this antenna almost on the grass and draped over a small tree. The other guy sent me a signal report of 559.
I can't wait to try it some evening.
I have ideas on a better setup for it, but I'm already impressed. It's inexpensive, built to last, very easy to deploy and put away, and it works. It's perfect for my situation, and I bet for a lot of other people as well.
WB2ERJ Rating: 2005-11-02
Build your own instead Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna does work as advertised. It loads well inside my apartment on 10-40M using my tuner. But, you can build your own for about $5 in 15 minutes. Just get a 50 ft. piece of twinlead, zip cord, or speaker wire and cut off 1/2 of one of the conductors. You now have this antenna. Connect it to the balanced input of your tuner and load it up. I found that my center feed 44' indoor doublet performed better than this antenna and had lower noise, even when part of this antenna was outside.