Same at the Gabil version (which I used for my primary SOTA antenna for the last 7-8 months). They do work, but, be ready to replace it after 3-6 months. I found that 6x12ft (20ga) radials worked best. Eventually, the inside of it starts suffering from intermittent contact issues as it gets used over time. This not only happened to mine, but to two others in my highly-active SOTA group that happened to jump on the Gabil bandwagon when they first came out. Used the hell out of them for a few months, then they stop working. I just went back with a SuperAntenna coil, which tunes easier and is built to a better standard. Also, the MP-1 coil diameter is proper for what it's doing.
Might just need to have its "foot" bent back into place. If mine dies, I'll take it apart and fix it also. Let me know if you find anything interesting. @@SASQ
I have that same bag! I was out in the front yard tuning up a Chinese antenna similar to that one. The instructions were almost nil, so there was a bit of fumbling, but we got it working eventually. My favorite band, now that we have sunspots again, has to be 15m. Lots of activity, but a lower noise floor than 40m or 20m. 17m is decent, as is 12, but you can't contest on them, as they're WARC bands. But for a bit of a ragchew they're fine.
Hey Jenny! nice on the bag... and yeah, the instructions make it seem like the person selling the antenna doesn't know what it is... but in the end it works pretty well.
I use something simiar, a chinese "manual screwdriver" antenna that I use with a 7 or so ft stainless whip. I pre-tuned it roughly in with a nanoVNA and off I go. As you can imagine it's a bit twitchy on 40m but for 20/17/15 it seems to work a treat.
If the MFJ antenna mounts are like those made by Workman, the spacing between the bolts is such that you can rotate the clamping plate 90 degrees, making a horizontally mounted antenna a vertical or vice-versa. That works with the single antenna version. Since I don't have a double antenna/dipole version, I'm not sure that'll work unless the clamp is at the very top of the pole.
great job ! that a neat antenna. I found just get ground radios on the ground spread them out normally does the job. this changes to the type of ground and wetness. when you reach around 1:5 SWR call it good. below that makes little difference. This is portable and not 2Kw . once I get a dip in SWR in the band I want around 1.5 or so I just use the tuner in my 7300 and start calling CQ. works for me. it you took a outher hour to get 1:1 it wont work any better getting out and that a hour less of on air contacts. most radios today have a tuner bult it. just use it. even weather change can effect SWR . snow rain ETC.73's
Aloha Steve, this antenna was designed to work on 10,11 and 12 meters. If you got it to work on 20 and 40 meters, more power to ya! 🤙🏻 Since I can’t afford the Chameleon MPAS antenna, I built an antenna that works very similar and has an SWR of 1.0 right out of the box so to speak. Which is perfect for my Xiegu G90 and I bet it would also work well with my old Ranger RCI 2950 HF rig for 10,11 and 12 meters. This antenna reminds me of the PAC-12 antenna that you can buy for about $150. I was hoping that this video was going to be about you getting on 10 meters for a Park to Park activation. I haven’t checked the propagation for 10 meters yet today but I’m thinking of driving up into the mountains and getting on 28.310 mhz USB at K-2222 within the next hour. Wish me luck! 🤙🏻
I have one of these ("Gabil" branded). It works great! I use it with a X6100 and a IC-705. It's really surprisingly good once you get the counterpoise situation working. And it's extremely portable. It's a winner for its intended use IMO. 73
I don't suppose that one of those end threaded rods unscrews from the coil. If it did that would: 1. allow you to use that whip without the coil (could telescope to 1/4 wave on 6m, maybe); or 2. let you use one of the longer whips with that coil.
Going to try the Comet “toy box” with my 705 in the next few days. My radials roll up into chalk line reels for ease of storing. Btw, we used to live on Rainbow Drive in Livingston. Fulltimers for about 10 years but we sold our last rig a year or so ago.
Good luck with the toy box, I found it was all about the radials, which made it less convenient for me. I'm not sure how long we'll do this. Fun so far. Maybe live-aboard next
Very cool ;) Im testing a vertical mobile antenna this week too. its the OPEK HVT-600 along with a 5" diameter magmount from ANLI. So far I have made some 10m contacts. and some 40m contact with that one. I haven't been able to make 80m contacts but im not too interested in 80m operation anyways. the HVT-600 is similar but instead of slider for changing bands there are taps for each band and they give you a banana jumper to move around between points on coil. oh, and there is some "fine tuning" with the little stinger whip at the top.
Fantastic for portable work! I'm thinking you could use a wire, instead of the whip, and hang it from a tree limb (so it can't get blown over).. But it seems a bit pricey... Googling around, I see you can get a similar antenna that is just a bit larger, but comes with radials AND a tripod mount/base for about the same price from Wolf River Coils. Maybe MFJ could sharpen their pencil and/or include a mount or something.
In a former life, we would only describe a place or event as Historic (vs historical) if it was on, or eligible for inclusion on, the National Register of Historic Places. A brief glance at the park's website indicates that there are numerous places within the park that are on the Register. To me, that means the individual places within the park are on the Register but the park itself is not and therefore is named a historical park.
If those wires are laying on the ground or buried in the ground aren't they called radials and if they are elevated above the ground then they're a counterpoise?
Correct -"ground radials" - If its elevated, it needs to be tuned, if its on the ground, tuning helps, but its more about having a surface to reflect off of.
Have you tried using 2 of these antennas mounted to the bracket shown in the video to make a dipole antenna? This would be similar to ham stick or a buddipole.
@@temporarilyoffline Thanks. I was thinking of doing this with a Hustler 40M super resonator. I have one now but with a second would be costly. So I'm thinking of getting 2 of these and can tune in other bands.
This antenna is identical to the Gabil I have except that the Gabil's gradations on the cylinder are laser-etched on the metal instead of being on a printed sticker.
I had a similar antenna a while back with the sliding coil adjuster. It wears over time with use and can be very tricky to tune at times but a good fast portable solution. 73 de - G0LQP
Go for it, play radio. 1.5:1 is only 4% reflected power or 0.18dB loss. Just hope the VSWR Police weren't waiting for you when you got home😅. I have a mobile antenna that uses a similar design as this. However, for 20m and higher, found that hamsticks seem to work better. Assume because base coil loading tends to be less efficient than the center coil type. On the other hand, the telescoping coil design does give you quite a bit of frequency agility.
Very easy to set up and radials are okay in contrast to 3 years ago when you lamented the same basic radio theory mechanisms on the HFJ-350. Notwithstanding quality of build issues, tuning mechanism, and RF performance, I am curious if your opinions on the HFJ-350 requiring setup compliant with basic radio theory have changed. It was nice to see a video giving an MFJ product a fair shake instead of instantly trashing it because it's MFJ. And not having a click bait thumbnail. Nice, comprehensive video.
I'm still ot a fan of the hfj-350 - that antenna is much more compromised and less flexible than this one. The HFJ "required" a tuned counterpoise for each band and it is honestly silly to have a 100ft+ counterpoise. This antenna is still a compromise, but not as bad. MFJ gets a bad wrap, but where would we be without MFJ and who else fills the niche (big as it is) that MFJ does?
Cool little portable mini hf vertical.👍 I've been adding stuff to my wish list, so once I lock in my US trip, I'll have 200kg of excess baggage to bring home.😂🛍👜
@temporarilyoffline haha, only one suitcase?. Lol. We haven't booked flights yet until my wife can confirm her long service leave at work, but that should be confirmed soon. At the moment, we are aiming to leave Australia mid April, and and stay 5 to 6 weeks. I'll be based at my sons place in Arlington, VA, but want to go to Texas, New York, Niagra Falls, Dayton Hamvention,, DC and dunno where else. Primarily East Coast tourist places that we haven't looked at yet. Will I need to book accommodation soon for Dayton/Xenia?
I have the same setup. Was thinking of using it next fall as I cruise the Erie Canal from Rochester to Lakeport for 10 days. I was told the Erie Canal was a park for its entire length! Question for you is, what do I use for radials while cruising the canal? I know I can put them out when I dock for the night; but I’d like to try mobile. Keep doing what you do! 73
I use 4x17ft radials. Can you spread them out on the boat? Any metal railings on the boat? Connect them electrically...if not, Check out KB9VBR's magic carpet setup.
Thanks for the video! What gage (size) is your ground radials and what length are they? And does that make much of a difference as far as how much power you transmit on?
These are 22 I believe. I'd run 100w through that, but no more. They are 17’. There is a balance between portability and perfection. Find what works for your requirements and have fun
I'll have more info in other videos on this one. It worked great enough to get the park activated and you can see the contact map at the end of the vid. Thanks for watching.
I dig the portability of that antenna. I get that it's a compromise (they all are) but this would be a great backup antenna for travel (especially flying).
Great video. Neat antenna. It look far more versatile than the MFJ 1899T antenna that uses a tapped coil for changing bands. I could not agree with you more when it comes to the ground radials. If they are laying on the ground, they DO NOT have to be tuned. I use three each 35 foot long radials and three each 17 foot long radials for my portable ground mounted vertical. 73 de KU3X
Thanks!! Another great vid! I rigged up something similar for my Toybox, but that looks a little more robust for external use. And the 3/8x24 on both ends is sooper flexible! I'm building a bracket to attach to one of those yellow 23' extendable painters poles and was wondering about how to run radials/counterpoise once it's elevated that high: Would one run a single strand down to the ground then fan out 4-6 radials, or run all the radials right from the elevated bracket and just accept the first 23' dangling to the ground? Yep, I'll try both and measure, but thought someone might have good thoughts! Thanks again!
Thought 1: Try it and see, should be fun. My gut says it won't work as well, but I'm genuinely interested in if this would work. Thought 2: Use actual wire or wire around rope as your guy lines on your elevated vertical -have them sloping down - connect these to the shield at the feed point and see how well that works. A lot of antennas that are vertical/elevated use metal rods sticking out horizontally, depending on your connections (or not) that could be expensive.
Perhaps it’s been made into a park because of the historical significance of the site, rather than just being a long-standing (historic) park. lol With that much coil, it really surprises me that the SWR curve is so shallow from 7mhz to 30mhz. Something about that doesn’t look quite right to me… I wonder if there’s a less than robust connection somewhere. I think I heard that this thing was really touchy for tuning, which would indicate that some people are experiencing much higher Q? Maybe it’s just the scale on your NanoVNA… not sure, as I use rig expert.
I literally set down to watch this video during lunch, eating catfish, cornbread (hush puppies), potato salad, and peach fried pie. Great minds think alike. LoL
Don't get me wrong I'm not an hater of MFJ products and have bought a lot from them in the past. However, while the antenna does seem workable, you'd think that there would be some sort of guide provided much like what other antennas makers of this type do as a starting point, and yes, using an analyzer to get it tuned is an option, but it seems a bit cumbersome to get it where you want. And although I see the use of antenna like tihs for portable use, personally for $149.00 I just can't see it. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even find a manual for it on the MFJ site. I suppose one could take measurements for each band as suggested, but most HAMs who do portable simply want to get setup as qujickly as possible to make contacts.
I think you're spot on and I'll help MFJ a little here. I think this is a brand new product of there's and they haven't written the manual yet. They are also a little behind on website stuff. MFJ is one of the few places we have that has so many products available. I would like to see them do well.
Interesting idea, but the price. I'm looking at something for "vehicular portable" operations, but I think there are better options for the money. For the same money a full set of hamsticks can be had iirc. A WRC Silver bullet and a buddipole 9ft telescopic whip ought to do the same job for just north of a hundred bucks.
Yeah, this is more "backpack friendly" and I wouldn't recommend it for vehicle ops. The ham sticks are a much better choice - esp with the quick disconnects to change bands as the time of day changes.
@@temporarilyoffline Yeah I definitely wouldn't be using something like that mobile. I'll be sticking with hamsticks for that. ATM I only have a 10m radio in the vehicle, but I have a spare DX-70 lying around that I might put to use. I am thinking more along the lines of something multiband and quick to deploy either via mag mount or screwed in to the existing mount for parked operations, something not my normal portable rig that I can carry around in the truck with me.
For my mission of backpack portable station, they are pretty darn good - not perfect for everything, but fitting in a small pack, traveling on an airplane, etc... this is fantastic.
Looks like MFJ stole the Gabil design. Gabil runs with UHF and 3/8-24 options now on their ebay store. My GRA-7350T tunes 40-6 no problem. 72' counterpoise in 6x 12' wires, laying all the way on the ground around the vertical. She works awesome that way.
@@temporarilyoffline no I hadn’t but I noticed your similar replies after I posted. Haha. Nothing original it seems, my bad! Good antennas tho. Got Italy from WV the other day on mine!
@@Emcipio I have a video on the old gabil, and another in the queue on the new gabil with the laser engraving. I love the gabil tripod, both are goto resources for traveling
@@temporarilyoffline I'm sure it is but I have what I have. Not very efficient antenna system for anything other than 10meters. I purchased a PAC 12 antenna seems to be alot more efficient.
I have a Hustler 5b and it was given to me in segments. So to put them together as if it was new out of the box, I called the manufacturer. DX engineering. While talking to an engineer/ham, he told me that they also consistently experiment to improve the antennas they sell. So he sent me really complete documentation on the antenna, that included measurements for the sections when assembled. However once I got the antenna together, I was going to add ground radials, but two problems came up. One the base for radials was not with the antenna. This turned out to be a separate item and cost more money than I had. The second problem, I did not have room to add as many radials as they suggested, not enough room in the yard to make a big circle. Calling DX back and a different ham, he told me they had experimented and found that there really was no need to measure radials for each band and they found making several radials at exactly 25' in length and at least 5 of them would work. Yep he was right.
The nano doesn't have to be a huge obstacle, it can just as easily be a good friend when it needs to be. Different methods for different tasks and you can't show every detail in every video. In this car, my default calibration is for 20m and until I got to 20m specifically I was out of calibration... but as you saw in the video close enough to accomplish the mission I set out for.
I wouldn't buy one. It's too short to be efficient, especially 40m I bought a SOTA beam telescopic mast and intend to run a wire up it with a tuner. Telescopes to about 2' and extends to about 19'. Much cheaper. Like an old ham friend said, you can tune up a knitting needle with a good atu but it won't be efficient. G4GHB.
I've found this one to be very useful in travel, especially air travel. I have a small tripod, this antenna, some coax and I'm on the air where it would have been difficult before. All depends on your use case. Everything is a compromise, some you can even live with. Thanks for watching.
You can chase perfection or do the thing. I love that you always choose to do the thing.
I try to encourage it!
1:52 Lol'd at "2-stroke assembly" 😆
As a gearhead, I couldn't resist
Same at the Gabil version (which I used for my primary SOTA antenna for the last 7-8 months). They do work, but, be ready to replace it after 3-6 months. I found that 6x12ft (20ga) radials worked best. Eventually, the inside of it starts suffering from intermittent contact issues as it gets used over time. This not only happened to mine, but to two others in my highly-active SOTA group that happened to jump on the Gabil bandwagon when they first came out. Used the hell out of them for a few months, then they stop working.
I just went back with a SuperAntenna coil, which tunes easier and is built to a better standard. Also, the MP-1 coil diameter is proper for what it's doing.
I haven't experienced that so far. Did anybody try gabil for a warranty?
One of us did. No response. I'm going to take mine apart at some point and have a look inside to see if it's anything glaringly obvious.
Might just need to have its "foot" bent back into place. If mine dies, I'll take it apart and fix it also. Let me know if you find anything interesting. @@SASQ
Use my Gabil as a spare but even wind makes it jumpy at this point. JPC-12 with longer radiator has been super consistent.
Every time I’ve gone “down South”, I was always amazed how good the gas-station food was.
Yeah, gas station lasagna was a new one for me!
Sphinx chicken sammich…OMG
I have that same bag! I was out in the front yard tuning up a Chinese antenna similar to that one. The instructions were almost nil, so there was a bit of fumbling, but we got it working eventually.
My favorite band, now that we have sunspots again, has to be 15m. Lots of activity, but a lower noise floor than 40m or 20m. 17m is decent, as is 12, but you can't contest on them, as they're WARC bands. But for a bit of a ragchew they're fine.
Hey Jenny! nice on the bag... and yeah, the instructions make it seem like the person selling the antenna doesn't know what it is... but in the end it works pretty well.
Awesome ratcheting sound effect you added while screwing the antenna on to the dipole mount @1:53😆 Thanks for another great review.
Right! That guy was having a blast hot rodding around on his bike! I thought it was great!
Have the Gabil version of this antenna and it works great. Dunno who copied who, but you can buy it with three different labels on it.
Gabil and MFJ both copied it from somebody else ;-) Pick your favorite brand name and enjoy! - like Chevy vs. GMC trucks.
Great review....good to have met you in Belton today.
Same here, thanks!
I use something simiar, a chinese "manual screwdriver" antenna that I use with a 7 or so ft stainless whip. I pre-tuned it roughly in with a nanoVNA and off I go. As you can imagine it's a bit twitchy on 40m but for 20/17/15 it seems to work a treat.
That's the way - I have an 80m version too, can you imagine how tight that one is?
If the MFJ antenna mounts are like those made by Workman, the spacing between the bolts is such that you can rotate the clamping plate 90 degrees, making a horizontally mounted antenna a vertical or vice-versa. That works with the single antenna version. Since I don't have a double antenna/dipole version, I'm not sure that'll work unless the clamp is at the very top of the pole.
It does work that way on the double mount also. I did a video on that one here: th-cam.com/video/oBWTKoGbOLQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=H8LTbRu1FvLwsxro
great job ! that a neat antenna. I found just get ground radios on the ground spread them out normally does the job. this changes to the type of ground and wetness. when you reach around 1:5 SWR call it good. below that makes little difference. This is portable and not 2Kw . once I get a dip in SWR in the band I want around 1.5 or so I just use the tuner in my 7300 and start calling CQ. works for me. it you took a outher hour to get 1:1 it wont work any better getting out and that a hour less of on air contacts. most radios today have a tuner bult it. just use it. even weather change can effect SWR . snow rain ETC.73's
Absolutely Correct! This is what I'm trying to tell people!
I need to use a Nano VNA for that quick setup. That antenna reminds me of another one I have seen.
Another one... Or two...
Aloha Steve, this antenna was designed to work on 10,11 and 12 meters. If you got it to work on 20 and 40 meters, more power to ya! 🤙🏻
Since I can’t afford the Chameleon MPAS antenna, I built an antenna that works very similar and has an SWR of 1.0 right out of the box so to speak. Which is perfect for my Xiegu G90 and I bet it would also work well with my old Ranger RCI 2950 HF rig for 10,11 and 12 meters.
This antenna reminds me of the PAC-12 antenna that you can buy for about $150.
I was hoping that this video was going to be about you getting on 10 meters for a Park to Park activation.
I haven’t checked the propagation for 10 meters yet today but I’m thinking of driving up into the mountains and getting on 28.310 mhz USB at K-2222 within the next hour. Wish me luck! 🤙🏻
I've been on 10m all week at a park, get your ham alert on and come find me brother!
I have one of these ("Gabil" branded). It works great! I use it with a X6100 and a IC-705. It's really surprisingly good once you get the counterpoise situation working. And it's extremely portable. It's a winner for its intended use IMO. 73
Exactly - compact back-packing antenna its perfect. If you have space/no portable needs.... not so much.
I don't suppose that one of those end threaded rods unscrews from the coil. If it did that would: 1. allow you to use that whip without the coil (could telescope to 1/4 wave on 6m, maybe); or 2. let you use one of the longer whips with that coil.
Not a bad idea! Even if it doesn't, 3/8th24 is very popular and you can get all the adapters you can dream of
Going to try the Comet “toy box” with my 705 in the next few days. My radials roll up into chalk line reels for ease of storing. Btw, we used to live on Rainbow Drive in Livingston. Fulltimers for about 10 years but we sold our last rig a year or so ago.
Good luck with the toy box, I found it was all about the radials, which made it less convenient for me. I'm not sure how long we'll do this. Fun so far. Maybe live-aboard next
The north end of the Natchez parkway in Tennessee is a beautiful drive BTW. We took the parkway to Tupelo a while back to see Elvis' childhood home.
I love a long drive!
Very cool ;) Im testing a vertical mobile antenna this week too. its the OPEK HVT-600 along with a 5" diameter magmount from ANLI. So far I have made some 10m contacts. and some 40m contact with that one. I haven't been able to make 80m contacts but im not too interested in 80m operation anyways. the HVT-600 is similar but instead of slider for changing bands there are taps for each band and they give you a banana jumper to move around between points on coil. oh, and there is some "fine tuning" with the little stinger whip at the top.
Looking forward to hearing how it works for you. I tried the "Comet Toybox" and I didn't like it - it was too heavily loaded.
Fantastic for portable work! I'm thinking you could use a wire, instead of the whip, and hang it from a tree limb (so it can't get blown over).. But it seems a bit pricey... Googling around, I see you can get a similar antenna that is just a bit larger, but comes with radials AND a tripod mount/base for about the same price from Wolf River Coils. Maybe MFJ could sharpen their pencil and/or include a mount or something.
Not a bad idea!
In a former life, we would only describe a place or event as Historic (vs historical) if it was on, or eligible for inclusion on, the National Register of Historic Places. A brief glance at the park's website indicates that there are numerous places within the park that are on the Register. To me, that means the individual places within the park are on the Register but the park itself is not and therefore is named a historical park.
Hey, that makes sense now!
Being a native of Mississippi from the Natchez area, enjoyed this videos.
I did this one across the bridge in Vidalia, fun day fighting antennas: th-cam.com/video/PRpMYpSwXFo/w-d-xo.html
If those wires are laying on the ground or buried in the ground aren't they called radials and if they are elevated above the ground then they're a counterpoise?
Correct -"ground radials" - If its elevated, it needs to be tuned, if its on the ground, tuning helps, but its more about having a surface to reflect off of.
Have you tried using 2 of these antennas mounted to the bracket shown in the video to make a dipole antenna? This would be similar to ham stick or a buddipole.
I haven't, but it should work pretty good!
@@temporarilyoffline Thanks. I was thinking of doing this with a Hustler 40M super resonator. I have one now but with a second would be costly. So I'm thinking of getting 2 of these and can tune in other bands.
This antenna is identical to the Gabil I have except that the Gabil's gradations on the cylinder are laser-etched on the metal instead of being on a printed sticker.
Exactly, I have the gabil as well. Great stuff
I had a similar antenna a while back with the sliding coil adjuster. It wears over time with use and can be very tricky to tune at times but a good fast portable solution. 73 de - G0LQP
Interesting, thanks for the info! I'll be watching for future wear!
Go for it, play radio. 1.5:1 is only 4% reflected power or 0.18dB loss. Just hope the VSWR Police weren't waiting for you when you got home😅.
I have a mobile antenna that uses a similar design as this. However, for 20m and higher, found that hamsticks seem to work better. Assume because base coil loading tends to be less efficient than the center coil type. On the other hand, the telescoping coil design does give you quite a bit of frequency agility.
with the 3/8ths-24, you could add a section or two of rigid radiator below the antenna to get the coil elevated. I might have to try this experiment.
That Gas Station fish is great, although it usual I’d imported from Vietnam, where we raise catfish right here in Mississippi lol
Ooh, foreign catfish in catfish heaven!
Very easy to set up and radials are okay in contrast to 3 years ago when you lamented the same basic radio theory mechanisms on the HFJ-350. Notwithstanding quality of build issues, tuning mechanism, and RF performance, I am curious if your opinions on the HFJ-350 requiring setup compliant with basic radio theory have changed. It was nice to see a video giving an MFJ product a fair shake instead of instantly trashing it because it's MFJ. And not having a click bait thumbnail. Nice, comprehensive video.
I'm still ot a fan of the hfj-350 - that antenna is much more compromised and less flexible than this one. The HFJ "required" a tuned counterpoise for each band and it is honestly silly to have a 100ft+ counterpoise. This antenna is still a compromise, but not as bad. MFJ gets a bad wrap, but where would we be without MFJ and who else fills the niche (big as it is) that MFJ does?
Cool little portable mini hf vertical.👍
I've been adding stuff to my wish list, so once I lock in my US trip, I'll have 200kg of excess baggage to bring home.😂🛍👜
Naw man, you'll buy another suitcase! When are you coming?
@temporarilyoffline haha, only one suitcase?. Lol.
We haven't booked flights yet until my wife can confirm her long service leave at work, but that should be confirmed soon. At the moment, we are aiming to leave Australia mid April, and and stay 5 to 6 weeks. I'll be based at my sons place in Arlington, VA, but want to go to Texas, New York, Niagra Falls, Dayton Hamvention,, DC and dunno where else. Primarily East Coast tourist places that we haven't looked at yet.
Will I need to book accommodation soon for Dayton/Xenia?
@@DonzLockz probably should book Dayton to get s good deal. I'll see you there!
@temporarilyoffline awesome, thanks T.O. ;)
I have the same setup. Was thinking of using it next fall as I cruise the Erie Canal from Rochester to Lakeport for 10 days. I was told the Erie Canal was a park for its entire length! Question for you is, what do I use for radials while cruising the canal? I know I can put them out when I dock for the night; but I’d like to try mobile. Keep doing what you do! 73
I use 4x17ft radials. Can you spread them out on the boat? Any metal railings on the boat? Connect them electrically...if not, Check out KB9VBR's magic carpet setup.
Nice looking antenna and a fantastic looking location and park too
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks for the video! What gage (size) is your ground radials and what length are they? And does that make much of a difference as far as how much power you transmit on?
These are 22 I believe. I'd run 100w through that, but no more. They are 17’. There is a balance between portability and perfection. Find what works for your requirements and have fun
I use a Metal tape measure 100 foot adjusted to a 1:1 swr on all my compromise antennas!
I have a tape measure antenna vid in the works as well
Use tape measures fully extended with allegator patch cables. Easy to store, put up, and see
They work great, but they are heavy
That was great... But I was really looking forward to seeing the signals coming in on the radio to see how it did and such.
I'll have more info in other videos on this one. It worked great enough to get the park activated and you can see the contact map at the end of the vid. Thanks for watching.
I dig the portability of that antenna. I get that it's a compromise (they all are) but this would be a great backup antenna for travel (especially flying).
I don't want to be asked about my 17' whip at TSA
Great video. Neat antenna. It look far more versatile than the MFJ 1899T antenna that uses a tapped coil for changing bands. I could not agree with you more when it comes to the ground radials. If they are laying on the ground, they DO NOT have to be tuned. I use three each 35 foot long radials and three each 17 foot long radials for my portable ground mounted vertical.
73 de KU3X
I think the tapped coil variety are more limited - still workable, though. This 1898 has worked well every time I've tried it.
Thanks!! Another great vid!
I rigged up something similar for my Toybox, but that looks a little more robust for external use. And the 3/8x24 on both ends is sooper flexible!
I'm building a bracket to attach to one of those yellow 23' extendable painters poles and was wondering about how to run radials/counterpoise once it's elevated that high: Would one run a single strand down to the ground then fan out 4-6 radials, or run all the radials right from the elevated bracket and just accept the first 23' dangling to the ground?
Yep, I'll try both and measure, but thought someone might have good thoughts! Thanks again!
Thought 1: Try it and see, should be fun. My gut says it won't work as well, but I'm genuinely interested in if this would work.
Thought 2: Use actual wire or wire around rope as your guy lines on your elevated vertical -have them sloping down - connect these to the shield at the feed point and see how well that works.
A lot of antennas that are vertical/elevated use metal rods sticking out horizontally, depending on your connections (or not) that could be expensive.
Great info on antenna, 📡 tnx bro!
Any time! Thanks for watching!
Perhaps it’s been made into a park because of the historical significance of the site, rather than just being a long-standing (historic) park. lol
With that much coil, it really surprises me that the SWR curve is so shallow from 7mhz to 30mhz. Something about that doesn’t look quite right to me… I wonder if there’s a less than robust connection somewhere. I think I heard that this thing was really touchy for tuning, which would indicate that some people are experiencing much higher Q? Maybe it’s just the scale on your NanoVNA… not sure, as I use rig expert.
Right, why not both?
@@temporarilyofflinehaha yeah totally. Historically historic historical parks on the air!
Just think of the merchandising opportunities! "Triple H" !!! @@Kinetic79
0:07 Better than hysterical.
That's our gov't for ya!
@@temporarilyoffline Indeed
I like your setup, but the meal looked even better.
Not gonna lie, it was pretty good!
That seems to be a great quick and dirty set up. WØRHP
Yeah, I like it a lot!
2 stroke power assembly! FTW!😎🤘🔥🔥
You got that right!
I literally set down to watch this video during lunch, eating catfish, cornbread (hush puppies), potato salad, and peach fried pie. Great minds think alike. LoL
Hope you enjoy
Don't get me wrong I'm not an hater of MFJ products and have bought a lot from them in the past. However, while the antenna does seem workable, you'd think that there would be some sort of guide provided much like what other antennas makers of this type do as a starting point, and yes, using an analyzer to get it tuned is an option, but it seems a bit cumbersome to get it where you want. And although I see the use of antenna like tihs for portable use, personally for $149.00 I just can't see it. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even find a manual for it on the MFJ site. I suppose one could take measurements for each band as suggested, but most HAMs who do portable simply want to get setup as qujickly as possible to make contacts.
I think you're spot on and I'll help MFJ a little here. I think this is a brand new product of there's and they haven't written the manual yet. They are also a little behind on website stuff. MFJ is one of the few places we have that has so many products available. I would like to see them do well.
Catfish! Hushpuppies! Too bad I am 3000 miles away. I went to school in Raleigh. Missed that stuff ever since. 72, VE7VIE
It was good! Next time you're in town I'll share!
Set the coil to get close then fine tune by adjusting the whip.
Yep, that's another way of doing it. Thanks for watching.
Something seems odd about your SWR graph on the NanoVNA, I would expect a much higher Q response at resonance.
I had it spanned pretty broad at the beginning and then narrowed it in as I got closer to where I wanted to be
But what did you do with the expandable whip? Was it all the way extended during all the tests? Or something else? Nice Video
Extended all the way
Interesting idea, but the price. I'm looking at something for "vehicular portable" operations, but I think there are better options for the money. For the same money a full set of hamsticks can be had iirc. A WRC Silver bullet and a buddipole 9ft telescopic whip ought to do the same job for just north of a hundred bucks.
Yeah, this is more "backpack friendly" and I wouldn't recommend it for vehicle ops. The ham sticks are a much better choice - esp with the quick disconnects to change bands as the time of day changes.
@@temporarilyoffline Yeah I definitely wouldn't be using something like that mobile. I'll be sticking with hamsticks for that. ATM I only have a 10m radio in the vehicle, but I have a spare DX-70 lying around that I might put to use. I am thinking more along the lines of something multiband and quick to deploy either via mag mount or screwed in to the existing mount for parked operations, something not my normal portable rig that I can carry around in the truck with me.
@@KC3UVF exactly, I'm going to use mine for parked operations also. The car makes a good counterpoise for that!
Well appreciated video, i didnt know of this ariel
Thanks
It's pretty good for how compact it packs up!
Great video… I’ve always wondered how good they are for the size.
For my mission of backpack portable station, they are pretty darn good - not perfect for everything, but fitting in a small pack, traveling on an airplane, etc... this is fantastic.
We will be releasing a full study of ground mats soon
Hello Glenn, Welcome. Where should I look for this?
"Push against" I never thought of the counterpoise that way.
Its AC current effectively, so its "push-pull" and without the push, its either your coax, or its broke.
@@temporarilyoffline Works for me! Thanks
Looks like MFJ stole the Gabil design. Gabil runs with UHF and 3/8-24 options now on their ebay store. My GRA-7350T tunes 40-6 no problem. 72' counterpoise in 6x 12' wires, laying all the way on the ground around the vertical. She works awesome that way.
I like the gabil too .. did you seen in the gabil instructions where they left the original mfgs name in that they stole it from?
@@temporarilyoffline no I hadn’t but I noticed your similar replies after I posted. Haha. Nothing original it seems, my bad! Good antennas tho. Got Italy from WV the other day on mine!
@@Emcipio I have a video on the old gabil, and another in the queue on the new gabil with the laser engraving. I love the gabil tripod, both are goto resources for traveling
What was your pwr output.
10w
Great Job Steve, yoda Man who wants to know about new Products and how to use them. Happy Humpday from Southwest Germany. 73 de YFUG 💯🙋♂
Happy Hump Day Uncle G!
Is that the same nanoVNA you had issues with in another video?
Nope, this is a replacement. I still have that one for when I get smart enough to fix it.
I wonder how it would be as a dipole.
It would be interesting for sure!
It looks like great antenna, I almost bought one. It is not worth the $150 price tag with no radials or mount
I can understand that. This is a cheaper version, with an added 80m coil, still no mount or radials though: amzn.to/3ZOyCsp
Not another portable antenna!
I guess I don’t have to buy one; who am I kidding, of course I have to buy one.
Right, it's what we do! Kits, radios, antennas, keys... It's an addiction
@@temporarilyofflineI don’t do CW but I have three keys.
@@N2YTA see, you get it!
3/8x24 oh thank gawd. The Gabils one flaw.
Only one?
@@temporarilyoffline only one I noticed in the 10 minutes I had it discovering it was 10x1
Those Metricers! @@forgetyourlife
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good when using this type of setup.
You got that right!
I have the hfc350 antenna looks like the same basic idea
This one is similar, but a little easier to setup.
@@temporarilyoffline I'm sure it is but I have what I have. Not very efficient antenna system for anything other than 10meters. I purchased a PAC 12 antenna seems to be alot more efficient.
I'm interested in the JPC antennas, they look like fun and I like the way the coils work. @@swenner64
@@temporarilyoffline JPC12 and Pac 12 are the same antenna
I think I want to try this with my buddistick pro
I did this with my buddipole - converted it to buddistick style and then mounted it on the ground with a ground plane. Worked great.
I have a Hustler 5b and it was given to me in segments. So to put them together as if it was new out of the box, I called the manufacturer. DX engineering. While talking to an engineer/ham, he told me that they also consistently experiment to improve the antennas they sell. So he sent me really complete documentation on the antenna, that included measurements for the sections when assembled. However once I got the antenna together, I was going to add ground radials, but two problems came up. One the base for radials was not with the antenna. This turned out to be a separate item and cost more money than I had. The second problem, I did not have room to add as many radials as they suggested, not enough room in the yard to make a big circle. Calling DX back and a different ham, he told me they had experimented and found that there really was no need to measure radials for each band and they found making several radials at exactly 25' in length and at least 5 of them would work. Yep he was right.
Exactly, we are always discovering more about radio. The truth is out there. Great news on getting your antenna working!
did you get a ham license yet?
I'm guessing you're not talking to me.
after stimulus change you must calibrate again ....
The nano doesn't have to be a huge obstacle, it can just as easily be a good friend when it needs to be. Different methods for different tasks and you can't show every detail in every video. In this car, my default calibration is for 20m and until I got to 20m specifically I was out of calibration... but as you saw in the video close enough to accomplish the mission I set out for.
3/8 X 24 on the top, nice.
Yep, we both like this antenna, does what it's supposed to
Hook this up to a Xiegu G-90 and watch this baby bark!
Yeah, it would do great!
@@temporarilyoffline I did it with my Comet toy box and reached Los Angeles from my QTH in Georgia and I also reached Nova Scotia, Canada too
@@walteredwards544 that's awesome 😎
RIP MFJ...
Sad news
I wouldn't buy one. It's too short to be efficient, especially 40m
I bought a SOTA beam telescopic mast and intend to run a wire up it with a tuner. Telescopes to about 2' and extends to about 19'. Much cheaper.
Like an old ham friend said, you can tune up a knitting needle with a good atu but it won't be efficient.
G4GHB.
I've found this one to be very useful in travel, especially air travel. I have a small tripod, this antenna, some coax and I'm on the air where it would have been difficult before. All depends on your use case. Everything is a compromise, some you can even live with. Thanks for watching.
Looks like a handy antenna to have in the arsenal. Thanks for the video! 73 de Chris K2CJB
You bet Chris! Sure there are better antennas for different jobs, but I like this one for lightweight + compact + backpack portable.
Marked up by them but not made by them
I don't know who makes it, I've seen at least 4 labels. I like the laser engraved version the best.
10m long wire ( on a tree / squid pole ) and an old antenna tuner , some coax ,and ,,,,,,,, DONE.... next
I think the only pole you can get in a backpack is the carbon6 from sota beams. It's on the list for sure.
2 Stroke Assembly!!!! LOL Blessings an Thank You!!!!! KO6ABQ
That guy was having a lot of fun and I thought it was a perfect soundtrack to the assembly!