#Buddipole hf antenna full size
#Buddipole hf antenna full
#Buddipole hf antenna portable

I used a 16ft tall 'Buddipole' mast which has convenient 1/2' pipe threads and puts the HF feedpoint and base of the VHF/UHF antenna at around 18ft off the ground.įeed it with 300 ohm TV twinlead or 450 ohm ladder line (I use TV twinlead with BNC connectors attached) and an LDG type tuner will load this antenna up on all bands 80 through 10m.

#Buddipole hf antenna full

It covers the full 40m band and most of 80m without a tuner when fed with 50 ohm coax.

#Buddipole hf antenna full size

It consists of a full size 40m and 80m dipole crossed at 90deg to each other. The antenna is not expensive to make and I'm posting the brochure to promote building antennas and to spark ideas.

Attached is a mock up 'sales brochure' for the few prototypes I made. If you have the space to set up you can put together an antenna I designed that will put out a signal on HF better than most people at home can and you also use any VHF/UHF NMO mount vehicle antenna on top. You can also hang a lightweight dual band J-pole (which I also dislike) from the same mast and now you have a VHF/UHF antenna way up in the air. That and one of the various 30 to 33ft telescoping fiberglass masts to get one end of it up high will run circles around any tripod mounted short loaded whip thingee like a Buddipole, Superantenna, etc.

#Buddipole hf antenna portable

A more efficient portable HF wire antenna is the new PAR quad band end fed which covers 40, 20, 15 and 10m, or a home made version. I hate to recommend the 9:1 balun with end fed random length wire, but it does seem to outperform the Buddipole on most bands depending on height. The Buddipole does work well on 20m on up but its just too short and low to the ground to have any efficiency on the lower bands and a simple wire antenna usually blows it away. I had one for years but only used it maybe three times because I have other things that work much better. When the HF pack group first formed some of the best QRP signals from that group on 20 and 17m were from Buddipoles. I can say for HF use in a small portable package, the Buddipole products are hands down the best quality of the bunch.

I've used most things on the market and to fill in the 'works great' part I've had to make things that are not available commercially. The difficult part is you want something that 'works great'. Your looking for something that is portable, self contained, covers HF, VHF, UHF, that's not a problem and there are many things that fit that description. You could always build your own antennas. Does any of it mean anything if the Sun isn't cooperating, sort of. The responses you may start to get will probably mention or question what you want to do from your transmit power to where you plan to use it. You specifically used the words '.and works great.' that is very subjective from one person to the next. So much fun to fiddle with in various configurations. I own a Mini-Buddipole and quite like it. I had to come back and edit this after re-reading your question. If you do not need UHF, then the Buddipole could take care of you from 40 through 2 meters.

Expect to open your wallet for those store bought items. You could just align the Elk horizontal or vertical depending on what you want to do. Perhaps purchase an Elk Log Periodic (2 m / 70 cm) and stack it on top of the Buddipole by a few feet with some PVC and screws. Click to expand.SuperAntenna and Buddipole offer some antenna options, but the UHF part would be the tricky bit.