Ham antennas - towers, masts, beams, wires - what do you set up?

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kc8qvo

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Mar 15, 2011
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Just curious here what kinds of base antennas you set up when out on the road, or permanently installed if you full-time and have land to do so?

Does anyone use a crank up style tower? Beams? Wires? Use trees as supports? Buddipole antennas? Screwdrivers on the RV/tilt up set up on top? Pole mounted to the trailer hitch? Drive over stand? Full size tri-band beam? Mini beam like a Mosely Mini-33A? 6m or VHF+ beams?
 
Watching this. I'm working on getting my FT-857D installed in my truck, then making a place in the trailer for it, so I am interested in antennas as well.
 
I found the Shakespeare marine antenna was a good one and had a lift designed to that I mounted it on the roof of the MH.  Had to be careful to make sure no trees, wires, etc. were overhead though. Several friends used the Tarheels Screwdriver antenna with their actuated lift system mounted on the roof of the RV.
 
Here's a picture of my Diamond X-30 VHF/UHF ground plane mounted on a painter's pole attached to the motorhome ladder. The second pole was used to anchor a G5RV Jr.

My radio club has a campout in a couple of weeks; should be interesting to see what we'll get up in the air.
 

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I have run Tarheels since 2002. I started with a model 200. Then switched to a model 400 in 2011 when I got my current truck. 160-10m. Rig uaually is a TS-2000 right now. The original rig I used was an FT-857D but the ceramic fiters are bad in it and it has been out of commission for a few years. Oddly enough, I have better luck on 160 than I do 75, as inefficient as the antenna is down there. This is all mobile though.

For portable I have a jumper dipole. Sometimes I set up a random wire or Buddistick.
 
I use a 40 mtr dipole in any available trees or a zero-five 40-6 mtr vertical mounted on the back bumper.
 
I use an Alpha J Pole wire antenna on a Flagpole Buddy 16' pole with their easy mounting system on the ladder. Coax leads to a junction box with a SO239 under the slide. I can put it up in about 10 minutes. The pole collapses to five feet and lives in the basement. Only need one point to tie it off.



 

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For VHF/UHF I have a roll-up j-pole that I put inside a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe. I put a hook on top. I launch a rope onto a tree branch and pull the j-pole up about 20-30 feet. I hook it to my ID-51a Plus HT for hitting local repeaters, but it's primarily used to call the kids back on their GMRS radios. I performed the extended TX mod on the HT so it would cover the 462Mhz GMRS band.

For HF, I have two different antennas I travel with currently. The best is an LNR Precision end-fed EF-Quad. It is resonant on 40/20/15/10 and it works pretty well. I bring a pneumatic tennis ball launcher and try to get it as high as I can. I also have a Chameleon CHA Hybrid-Mini with a 60' radiator that will sorta work ok on 80m and up. Frankly, I bought the Hybrid-Mini to tinker around with some vertical and horizontal dipole configurations for portable use on the higher bands.

One of my winter projects is to build a portable spider beam antenna or maybe get a Mosley mini-beam instead. I'm looking for a lightweight, directional, easy to deploy antenna for portable use on 20m and up. That's a lot to hope for :)

73 de K8MEJ
 
Hi CuisinArtOH,

Thanks for the great, really detailed post. It's amazing  what one can learn just by reading what the experts post here.

Case in point, I've never heard of pneumatic tennis ball launchers, especially in relation to antenna deployment... A little googlin' got me that: http://www.antennalaunchers.com/antlaunching.html

Again, amazing!

Cheers,
--
  Vall.
 
That's it. I bought a kit for the CSV19 from http://www.akbeng.com. A few of the Elmers in my radio club have them so I bought and built my own this summer so I could bring it with me. I have a 12v portable compressor I use. When camping, I plug it in to the camper. When operating portable and not camping, I use my portable 12v battery pack.
 
  The antenna I am using now has out preformed any antenna I have ever tried and I have used some nice screwdrivers with and with out top hats, wires thrown in a tree etc. A few Hams in camp grounds thought there antenna was the best and they have copied what I have now, it's cheap and quick and easy to set up five minutes or less. I have 2-24Ft poles one mounts om my draw bar in the rear and one mounts to a plate with a tube welded to it that the pole slips in to that I put under a front wheel left or right I can use either side. As you can see in the pics that is a Icom AH-4 tuner mounted on the ladder and the wire is fed through two pulley's at the top. I use about 65 feet of wire and tie the end off so the wire is tight and I am on the air with my 706 MK II G. If we are on the road I use just the rear pole and 35 ft of wire, tie it off and I am on the air 6-M through 75-M and it works fine. So far I have not had a problem in any of the camp grounds we have been in. I posted pics if they didn't come through let me know, Thanks Rod KI6FH 
 

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  Hi Bill, you don't need it with this antenna I tried one hooked to the ground side of the Icom tuner and I didn't see any difference, I stretched it out behind the motorhome and underneath it and no difference it's just not needed. My friend in LA has said he has never heard my signal as strong as when I am on this setup. Last year there was two hams in a campground where we were one had a big Tar heal and the other was a Scorpion and the friend in LA said there was no comparison my signal was much stronger. And like I said it takes five minutes or less to set up and you are on the air. Rod.. 
 
Thanks, Rod. I will keep this approach in mind. Right now we do not stay in one spot long enough to have time to setup and use the Tarheel I have on the ladder. At some point we will have time to spend time at a destination that will allow me to really evaluate the Tarheel. Your approach is a good alternative in that it can all be done from the ground.
 
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