Is bigger better? The Big Kansas Coil Vertical Antenna System
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- The Big Kansas Coil is a lightweight, portable, and durable base loaded vertical antenna system that when paired with a telescoping whip operates on the 6 through 80 meter ham radio bands. This coil offers some innovative features, including: 3D printed construction out of engineering grade materials, integrated coil scale, easy to use adjustment collar, and a wider diameter coil than anything else on the market.
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That was me just before the antenna fell over and I missed your qsl and 73 but came back a bit later to confirm - Glad to work you!
Both Wolf River Coils and Buddipole are going to need to up their game. Big Kansas Coil has built a better mousetrap!!
Yep, the markings on the coil are a great addition. I'm always just wildly guessing when it comes to tuning the WRC.
That coil costs $170; the WRC equivalent is the Silver Bullet Mini at $55
@@N2YTA Great point. WRC's value is pretty great.
@@N2YTA SO????????, Its always amusing to see people in this hobby think nothing of spending $3000+ on a new radio, but, act real cheap when its comes to getting an antenna
@@rossbassette7518 It looks like a very nice product, but at more than three times the cost of a WRC Silver Bullet Mini I think it's a bit pricy. BTW, I don't have a $3000 radio.
I truly enjoy the inductance collar and the flexibility to move it by squeezing the tabs that reduce friction!
Agreed, that's the best design out there for this type of antenna base.
Lower q and more bandwidth means higher losses. That's not a feature, that's a bug!
My club member made this!
Innovative. He did good!
I really like the coil but I am not sure at $170 just for the coil that it will sell as well as WRC which is cheaper. Definitely looks nice and seems very well thought out. Thanks for the demo!
be aware the 17’ whip must be shortened to 97” or 112” to be used as the manpack 6 or 7 element antenna to use coil for 20M and down 40-80M.
when your tripod blew over... I felt that haha. I had just bought a brand new buddistick back in 2014(ish) and took it out to a park in san diego. it was hot out so i was under a shelter. The wind blew it over and the telescopic part of the antenna hit the roof of the shelter and broke it in half. I was so bummed. thankfully back then to replace the telescoping part of the buddistick was only $13. I imagine it has went up quite a bit since then. Anyway cool video I hadn't heard of this antenna before -- Jeremy KF4CHW
I bought inexpensive photographer weight bags from Amazon and filled them with about 5 pounds of aquarium sand. Only need one and it never falls over. I haven't even looked at my ground spike mount since.
Think I'll stick with my home made loading coils which I made using 90mm PVC storm water pipe.250mm long with taps to suit all the bands Im interested in and cost me sweet Fanny Adams to make using a roll of copper wire and a VNA. This looks nice with all the effort gone into the clip and all. Ultimately its a coil of wire with a movable tap you can attach to a mount. At $170USD which is currently $255.00 Australian Dollars It's a fair amount of Money for something so rudimentary in my opinion.
Having a 3/8x16 or 1/4x20 threads on the bottom would make it more compatible with a typical camera tripod. 3/8x16 being the more common tripod base size.
I have the BKC with a 17’ MFJ whip. I’m having a heck of a time tuning it for 40 meters. I only have the SWR meter on my ICOM IC-7100. The SWR is off the chart and I’ve tried placing the clip at the bottom, middle, and top of the coil. I lowered the antenna by small increments with no luck. I’m using 40 feet of LMR-400 coax from DX. I used LSB and RTTY each to take the readings. Nothing has brought me to the point where I can see the tops of the bars in the meter. Thanks for any help. Have a great week.
Michael, thank you.
I carry three 70 pound bags of sand in my pickup bed. No antenna fall overs. Way over Ami engineered, but it works.
Glen, N0QFT
Any tips??? I'm looking for a setup to purchase very soon (I'm about to get my license!) to complement the icom -7300. I'm looking for a portable antenna that would give me good ability to communicate with a friend in Dallas in the event of an emergency (I live in Kansas City). I was looking at the Chamelon Mpas 2.0, but this looks as if it might do well for me. Any thoughts and tips for a newbie looking for emergency communication capability while I'm learning? Thanks in advance!
Watching your antenna take a dive is exactly why I'm afraid to use tripod-mounted antennas. I currently use either the ATAS 120 A in my pickup, or the Chelegance MC-750 stuffed firmly IN the ground. Call me chicken . . .
just got my BKC and it is better than the wolf river in my mind with the slider to have a reference. also handles 100Watts at 50% duty cycle digital. also has a tripod accessory mount that is quite useful to elevate the antenna higher. have used with faraday cloth for ground plane. be aware the numbers on the unit do not correlate with the actual frequency. with 97” whip, the 20 M is at 6… to start, then tune with SWR Meter. 6C is to rotate to the “C” part of the coil… and I do like the brass ground screw…W8BLT. thanks Mike I never would have found this coil without your review, at least not as fast. I don’t see alot of reviews for this. Spread the word!
For a $100 tripod they sell you that need to modify it so it can be properly secured (staked) in windy situations where the antenna can drop on the side and brake the whip. Well made coil, but a bit too big for backpacking POTA operations.
Blahahaha
100w 50% duty cycle is nothing..
Please provide the price at the beginning of the video!!! If too expensive I don’t want to waste time.
In a 16 minute video, a screen shot with the price is at 1:52. I'd say that is pretty good.
Carbon is conducive, not sure that’s a wise choice hopefully it’s all calibrated
It's all fun & games until the antenna gets blown over by the wind... Nice work Mike! 73!
The last couple months have been so windy, I should just carry sandbags with me.
Hello,
Good review as usual. Did you try this with a raised radial by any chance?
I did not test this coil with an elevated radial. But it will work in that configuration. You will have to do a bit of adapting, though, to elevate the coil, as the unit only comes with the ground mounted legs. But if you put a 3/8x24 stud onto a clamp, tripod, or short mast, the coil can be screwed into it and used in an elevated fashion.
Seeing the wind blowing your antenna over, I had the same thing with my setup. I took an older photo tripod and modified it for my coil and whip. It’s a lot more stable than the small tripods that are available.
I've got a 30 year old Bogen (Manfrotto) tripod that I use for my delta loop. I like that you can splay the legs out wide for more stability. I do agree that I wish someone made a sturdy adapter that converts the tripod threads to 3/8x24
I've had enough emails and talk about adapters, look for one on the website here this week! It'll match the coil and go to 1/4-20 for standard camera tripods.
Thanks, that was a very nice review, so I will consider this coil for my next purchase for this type of gear. Now, let's see if any of the other TH-camrs will cover this coil and demo it. Thanks and 73. Vic de KE8JWE.
Another unbiased honest review. Thank you Michael from Charlie N7OMI
Saw that antenna blow over and thought uh oh. Mine blew over on Sunday and broke my WRC 17' whip in half. You got lucky. WV3H
My wife left me for a bigger coil
Thank you for this video. I've been a user of the Buddistick for quite some time now. This looks like it will be easier to tune than the stick and I like the setup for the legs, which I wish my stick had.
Quality amateur telescopes have a hook on the tripod for hanging a weight bag. Should be easy to rig something up to this, even a dumbell or plate weight.
It looks good but the web site says no returns. The fact they they call themselves a start up shouldn't make a difference.
Ok my comment....the company should offer a whip. This is like buying half a car and going somewhere else for the other half.
That’s what I’m thinking too
I agree, I should sell a whip... But what whip would you like to see, and are you willing to pay a little extra to buy it from me rather than a different vendor? We've been looking into it but assumed no one would want to pay extra for it.
@@BigKansasCoil I'd like to second having the option to include the whip as an optional add-on, or at the very least a listing or a link (even an affiliate link) to recommended whips on Amazon/HRO/etc. Either way, this video does a great job of listing whips that can be used. I'll be moving up from a Buddistick to the full package soon.
Dimensions drive coil Q amongst other things. Getting the coil off the base helps too.
Does it come with a whip? I see the coil I see the tripod I see the radius but I don't see anything about a whip
No it doesn't. Whips are sold separately. I recommend either the Chameleon SS17 or a nine segment foldable man-pack whip.
It now can come with a 7 section manpack whip! The option is available on the website.
With HOA also allows stealth I will save my allowance for this baby.
i have a concern based on my personal experience with using carbon fibre on Aircraft.
generally, carbon fibre will actually absorb RF, and therefore less of it will radiate out the antenna.
I wonder if the author of the device that actually tested this using a non-carbon printed coil form to see if there was a difference in performance?
The coil body is actually done with Glass Fiber Nylon and the tuning clip is Carbon Fiber Nylon. There isn't enough CF content to make an appreciable difference.
The CF content of filled filament depends on the manufacturer, most of it around 20% of randomly aligned small chopped/milled pieces that are small enough to pass through a 0.4mm nozzle. What adding it does is change the printing and mechanical properties of the material to make it better suited for the application.
There are printers that can lay continuous carbon fiber, but this isn't made with one of them.
I've made them in PLA, ABS, ASA, PAHT-CF, PA6-CF, and PA6-GF materials, and as far as performance of them they all seem about the same. Where the materials matter is the durability and properties of the entire system.
An updated varient of the Texas Bug catcher. (Which is still available today). The sliding ring is interesting. Gotta look more closely at this. BTW, Thanks for the comprehensive review.
The Texas Bugcatcher was what helped come up with the name, I figured if Texas had a bug catcher, Kansas needed something.
Noise floor was less with the magic cloth. Bands or magic? Nice video and nice coil. Thanks and 73, KF0NNQ.
It was most certainly the bands. Conditions were all over the place during the time period I tested the antenna.
😁Bought one on the strength of your review.
Not disappointed!
A little intimidated at listening to the pileups and admiring your skill at pulling callsigns out of the hash!
Thanks for the kind words Linn!
I have a super antenna. I wonder how it compares to this
I’ve watched so many videos from you that I would probably be star struck if I made a contact with you! Haha
We need to make a contact! I hope to get you in the log soon.
As a sota operator, this looks to be a little too much
No 80 meters? I have no use for antennas that cannot do 80.
The coil will certainly work on the 80 meter band. I not only say so in the video but I demonstrate the 80 meter bandwidth of the coil. Look for that at about the 12 minute mark
after couple months in the sun that 3dprinted plastic starts turning into powder
Hi Paul, the material this coil is made out of stands up to the sun just fine without worrying about degradation. If you've got any questions about how it's made, feel free to ask!
Thanks, Michael for the review. I do like the clip. I wish it was able to handle more than 100 watts like the WRC platinum.
We actually don't know what the top end of the power rating is, but we're calling it 100w FT8, voice work could certainly be higher. I use my personal ones at 100w digital modes without any problems. We haven't tried to melt one down yet.
@@BigKansasCoil Thanks for your reply. I rarely go above when I’m remote, but it has happened. Great looking product.
carbon material is a bad idea
Would it work with magic carpet
Never mind. I did not watch the video far enough
Looks like a good design. I just don’t think 3D printing is the way to go. It’s nowhere near as strong as a machined part. Before I’d buy something like this I’d want to know a lot more about the material and printing process.
That being said, I love to see all the recent innovation with antennas
you simply don't understand where 3D printing is right now.
I agree, it isn't as strong as a machined part, but we believe its plenty strong enough. It has been tested, and a tensile test showed over 900lbs before failure occurred in the material. What 3d printing does allow though is creating of parts and designs that would be tough to manufacture with traditional methods and allows the complete coil to weigh the same as a can of your favorite beverage!
If you decide to buy one, know that they are backed by a 1yr warranty on the coil. If you do manage to break one, please send me pictures and a description of what happened when it broke so it can have the design improved to prevent that again!
No one has managed to break one yet either.
🍺🍺👋
For a given coil length, wire diameter and turns per unit-length; a larger diameter coil will have a higher Q than a small diameter. On the other hand, a larger diameter coil will have lower inductance. Thus, its length needs to be increased to achieve a given target inductance. Increasing a coil's length decreases its Q due to increased wire resistance. Especially important is the type of wire used. For stainless steel wire, the Q will be very low. For silver plated copper wire, the Q will be very high.
The original versions were done with tinned copper wire, but after some prototypes came back after spending all winter outside, the corrosion on the exposed elements showed it isn't a viable option. At that point it was all switched to stainless, with the exception of the wire from the tuning clip to the coil and that is tinned copper.
@@BigKansasCoil It did not occur to me that the coil was for permanent or semi-permanent installations. Perhaps you can offer it with the option of either SS or tinned copper wire.
Also of interest, does the tuning clip contact more than one wire turn on the coil? The concern being that high circulating currents occur with shorted coil windings.
It was designed for portable use, but some of the folks using it have wheels under their home and set it up on the coast where they winter at.
At this time we don't want to have many options for ease of manufacturing and stocking.
That coil looks fantastic!
Looks like a good option
It looks nice but there are things I don’t like, 1 Stainless steel wire in a coil lowers the Q and causes losses and more bandwidth this is a bad thing not a good thing. 2 $170 for a simple coil is way to high a price. 3 100 watts at 50% duty is not impressive. But it does look good.
Hi @billverstelle8979
Stainless wire wasn't the first choice for construction, tinned copper was, easier to work with and better on paper performance. Then some prototypes came back from the field, corrosion! They still worked ok, but they were ugly.
Things were then switched to stainless.
The price could be lower if I used lower quality parts in it but that isn't how I want to operate. They aren't cheap or fall off a log easy to build.
Do you bring an amplifier on portable outings or are you heavy on the TX on CW? That's about the only way I can see the 100w being a limit. What would work better for your operating?
@@BigKansasCoil well I agree with the 100 watts that’s a good point although I like over kill to be on the safe side I did melt a screwdriver coil once on CW.
At this price point I would thought silver plated copper would have been used. But I have no idea the cost of the 3D material.
I would like a coil that doesn’t have the so239 on the coil so I could move the coil more to the center of the antenna getting it away from the base. Maybe build the coil in 2 pieces with the coil as one piece and the SO239 in the other piece, they could be screwed together to be used as a base coil or unscrewed and a extension installed between then to move the coil up the antenna, anyway just a thought.
What ever 3D printer you are using it sure does an awesome job.
@@billverstelle8979 The 100 watts is a very conservative number I believe. I haven't melted one yet but I've yet to turn the amplifier on and run contacts yet. 100w FT8 doesn't show any temperature issues from my testing so far, further on the to-do list is run it at 500w with thermal pictures of it.
If a fully sealed coils is ever built it can be plated copper, but otherwise they have to be stainless. I've got some customers that winter on the Gulf Coast and that is heck on anything other than stainless.
Yes, that's been a thought that's been kicking around.
Thanks, I'm pleased with how they turn out.
Amphenol SO239 was mentioned . That alone is an indication of quality. Cheers from Aus
Are you using the fereday cloth rather than the radials? Do you use that on both coils?
I tested this antenna with radials and with a faraday cloth. Performance was pretty identical between the two. Since the coil is isolated from the base, you will need a jumper to connect the cloth to the ground side of the antenna.
@KB9VBRAntennas so how big a piece of faraday cloth do you need?
This antenna is going to make the completion a little nervous
No wonder you don’t tell us upfront. $170 for just the coil, NO THANKS!!
Don’t be a Poor.
This looks great, I love my WRC -- but this looks like a good one.
Hello,
Please,try making a vertical antenna from a heat-resistant alloy with a separate power supply for heating the antenna,just like indirectly heated cathodes of radio tubes are made.Electrons are radio waves,which,when the antenna heats up,increase their speed,so when transmitting radio communications,radio waves propagate over long distances,and the radio listener hears a very clear a radio transmission,being on the other side of the globe.When electrons,that is,radio waves,increase speed when the transmitting antenna heats up,they very easily pass through high-rise concrete and granite buildings and mountains.
Thanks a lot,
The Grand Duke of Kyiv and the Prince of Denmark Michael Milyutin.
Electromagnetic waves are not composed of electrons. Rather they are composed of photons.
6:55 - Tripod sandbags most definitely needed. 5:17 - MUCH Larger T-shirt most definitely needed as well.