Monday 25 September 2017

Messing about with Antennas

Yesterday here in Kingston it was a glorious day, with a high of 27C......41C with the humidex, so of course it was the perfect day to go to Lake Ontario Park and play with some antennas.

Several years ago I bought from Buddipole a Rigid Shock-Corded Whip and a Mini Shock-Corded Whip, and I have never used them...they just sat in the corner of the shack.   The issue here is that Buddipole produces no information about how to use these whips, unlike the rest of the products they have.  These two types of whips appear to be orphans.

There seems to be nothing on the Internet about these whips, no ideas for settings or how to set them up, or even how to tune them so they work on various bands.  So, it seems like it was time to experiment with them.

My Rigid Shock-Corded Whip is made up of five 22 inch sections, with a 19 inch adjustable stinger on the top and a 17 inch one on the bottom, giving it a total length of 146 inches.  According to the Buddipole literature, this whip is good for 10m through 17m, and can be used on 20m with the use of two extra 22 inch arms.

After four hours of experimenting with different set-ups here's what I managed to get to work:

On 15m, at 21.150, the SWR was 2.0:1.  The whip was set up with no stingers used, and on an 8 foot mast.  I used a single 10' 9" counterpoise wire running from 8 feet down to 4 feet.

On 17m, at 18.136, the SWR was 1.5:1.  The whip was set up with the top stinger fully extended, but the bottom stinger was not used.  It was also set-up on an 8 foot mast.  I used a single 14' 3" counterpoise wire running from 8 feet down to 4 feet.

On 20m, at 14.145, the SWR was 2.0:1.  The whip was set up with both stingers fully extended and two 22" arms.  It was also set-up on the 8 foot mast.  I used a single 14' 3" counterpoise wire running from 8 feet down to 4 feet.

Even with changing the lengths of the counterpoise wire I could not get below these SWR measurements.

The Mini Shock-Corded Whip on the other hand could not be tuned anywhere.  The version I own is the nine-section version with a 10 inch adjustable stinger on top for a total length of 122 inches.  This whip is going to take a lot more experimenting before I can get it to work.

I'm very surprised that Buddipole does not seem to support these whips the way they support the other antennas they produce.  The documentation they produce for their other antennas is fantastic.

6 comments:

  1. Good morning Bill,

    Yes it is true, Buddipole does not seem to support these whips, with good documentation.

    Here is what I've found:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuGjODZ4ghY

    Only one video on You Tube, about adjustable shock cord whip.-

    And this chart, which is very useful before buying one or two shock cord whip. to help calculate and see the various possibilities vs the different bands, for portable operation.

    Here is the chart:

    SECTIONS COLLAPSED FULL EXT. BASE TO STINGER

    3 22"/56 CM 64"/163CM 100!/254CM

    4 22"/56CM 85"/216CM 121"/307CM

    5 22"/56CM 106"/269CM 142"/361CM

    6 22"/56CM 127"/323CM 163"/414CM

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    3- 32"/81CM 94"/239CM 150"/381CM

    4- 32"/81CM 125"/318CM 181"/460CM

    5- 32"/81CM 156"/396CM 212"/538CM
    Hope it helps,

    I have some documents here I shall llok at, and let you know.

    All the very best Bill,

    72 Michel VE2TH
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for this Michel !!! This will be very useful to me.
      73, Bill VE3FI

      Delete
  2. Good Evening Bill,

    I'm glad it helps you, and as I told you I have some .PDF documents which should help too.
    but I cannot sent it here, I don't know why.-

    I sent it to your e-mail address from QRZ.com, HOPE YOU GOT IT ?

    Those documents come from David Haycock KI6AWR. and other sources

    1- About the Buddipole regular coils, the mini-coils and the Low Band coi

    2- More on tuning..
    3- Buddipole settings as of sept 2017
    4- A brief guide , 26 pages.

    Sure you will like it.

    By the way I use Buddipole/Buddistick antennas since the beginning in 2002.

    For many years, now I use it always full size (no compromise) from 20 up to 6 meters.

    My favorite configuration is the Vertical Dipole which is very simple to install and tune.

    I always use my antenna analyser AA-54 from Rig Expert.

    For a little bit of gain, I use two of them.

    All the best,

    73 Michel VE2TH

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Michel,

    Nope, haven't received an email from you, the email on QRZ is current. Could you try and re-send it?

    Chers & 73
    Bill VE3FI

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Bill,

    Just sent it to you via your other e-mail address which I took in QRZ.COM

    Docs & photo

    Cheers & 73
    Michel VE2TH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michel, received all the attachments.....THANKS !!!!!
      73,
      Bill VE3FI

      Delete