Steve, I think you are officially an Elmer now. With what I have learned here, I think I have now learned more from you than you have learned from me. A couple of my favorite Steve tips are the easy deploy cordage bundle (which I plan to teach my Cub Scouts) and the slingshot method for getting antennas into trees, but the telescoping hamstick hack is now a new favorite and probably third on my list.
I am tired of the whips snapping off while I am driving. I cannot fine replacement whips and end up buying a whole new antenna. I love your use of the telescopic section.
Whenever possible use a hard wired connection to the vehicle body for connecting the shield side of the feed line. Especially on lower frequency bands (40/80/160 meters a small mag mount that capacitively couples the shield side of the feed line to the vehicle body/counterpoise is very lossy. Also on 40/80/160 meters in order to achieve the lowest possible SWR you will invariably need to have some shunt reactance across the feed point . Typically 500 pf on 40, 500-1000 pf on 80, and 1000-1500 pf on 160. Small shunt coils can also be used, about 6 turns of No.14 insulated stranded wire close wound on a medium soaked prescription pill bottle works well on 40 and often 80 meters. Using the shunt reactance will get the SWR at resonance down to well below 1.5/1. Many of the installation instructions supplied with Hamsticks including the original Lakeshores and OPEKs discuss the need for the shunt reactance at the feed point but I’ve newer seen them discussed in any of the numerous TH-cam Hamstick videos. Actually, any electrically short vertical antenna will likely need some impedance matching reactance at the feed point. Typically, on 20 through 10 meters, you can get a near perfect 1/1 SWR on any properly installed and directly hardwired grounded to the vehicle body counterpoise mobile antenna, Hamsticks included. Chris AJ1G
What I forgot to add to the above comment was that the shunt reactance is typically not needed on 20 meters and higher frequency bands to achieve low SWRs at resonance
Re cutting off the bottom of a Hamstick type antenna, as long as the stinger rod stays above the close wound loading coil windings in the lower section of the antenna, you will not have a problem. Keep in mind that if you do shorten the stinger you will limit how low in frequency you will be able to resonate the antenna. In over 20 years of using Hamsticks and other types of mobile antennas,!Ive never had to shorten a stinger to achieve resonance at the high end of a band. That said, your Idea of using a telescopic upper section is great. However, I wouldn’t use one while driving around. Probably wouldn’t survive bonking on tree branches very well compared to a stainless steel rod stinger. I have attached small telescopic extensions typically up to 18 inches, to the top of my center loaded manually adjustable 1960s vintage Webster Bandspanner multiband mobile 80-10 meter antenna to provide smoother adjustment of resonance across a given band. Finding resonance on 40 meters and higher bands with it by sliding the stinger up and down along its internal loading coil is very touchy. The “vernier” adjustment with the small telescopic tip section makes it very easy to move around the band. Also the added length allows full coverage of 80 meters. The as designed Bandspanner runs out of adjustable stinger length below about 3700 kHz. I make the vernier stinger extensions out of small telescopic pocket magnetic tip pick up sticks sold at places like Harbor Freight and Ocean State Job Lot for a few bucks each.
Thanks Chris for the good information here. You have lots of experience with hamsticks. How would you get a ground to the body when using a single mag mount? And yea, don't drive with a telescopic antenna. Steve - Ad4xt
The metal base of the mag mount above the plastic film should be connected to the shield side of the feed line. Drill a hole in the medal base to attach an as short as possible grounding wire that can be connected to the car body. A good spot on an SUV is at the left rear corner of the roof, place the max mount there and run a bet short wire attached to the body at the upper left corner of the lip of the lift gate just below the inner side of the weather strip on lift gate sill/frame. Be sure to keep the grounding wire short, preferably no more than maybe 6 inches or so. It can run over the weatherstrip, never have had a problem with leakage from such a wire. Be sure to scrape/grind down around the holes on the msg mount base and vehicle ground point to bare metal for a solid low resistance connection. On a sedan, put the antenna on the trunk lid and run a short grounding wire to the deck lid frame. Both ways will keep the connection point hidden with lift gate or trunk lid closed.
@@hamradioportable1630 Do a search for GRA-MAT50 for a capacitive solution. You might need an SO239 mag mount with an adaptor to 3/8-24 to get the ground out to the antenna side without having to drill into a mag mount to make the connection.
Static mobile only with a telescopic whip. Go with whatever you can find that's not too long. You only need one around 50 inches to cover most all of the hamsticks on the market. Steve - Ad4xt
Yes that's exactly what it is. I have seen a 5' on the dxengineering website. www.dxengineering.com/parts/mfj-1963?seid=dxese1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr9m3BhDHARIsANut04ZDEmE9z6vOc7XNzH9vy-3Ynu20Ueyf8Z7DrRhGOmDUN3u-eKVVVeIaArHoEALw_wcB
Like your cheat sheet, I think I will try my 17' whip with an auto tuner then I won't need a cheat sheet. Great idea with the ham stick. This would be like having a loaded 17' whip. I am listening to your video through headphone and lose the left audio around 7:14
I plan to do the same with a 17' telescopic antenna i picked up from gigaparts. I'm using a wireless mic system. It may have had a short drop out in one channel. Did not notice when editing. Thanks Steve - Ad4xt
There are two different hamstick versions, the expensive ones and the cheap ones. The expensive ones have the top section where you can unscrew it as seen in the video, with a 3/8-24 thread in the bottom section. The cheap ones don't have that, they just have the top section of the base with the whip going straight in. They have one grub screw, not two as well. Those ones can't be used to do this mod.
I have talked to several folks using a hamstick on a mag mount stuck to the metal railing. Maybe a metal lid to a 55 gal. drum. Good luck Steve - Ad4xt
Thanks for the tips Steve! Great idea with the telescoping whip. I’ll have to give this a try someday.
Steve, I think you are officially an Elmer now. With what I have learned here, I think I have now learned more from you than you have learned from me. A couple of my favorite Steve tips are the easy deploy cordage bundle (which I plan to teach my Cub Scouts) and the slingshot method for getting antennas into trees, but the telescoping hamstick hack is now a new favorite and probably third on my list.
Thanks Mr. redacted: I'm glad to make it on your top 10 list.
Excellent video and also resourceful. Red Green would be proud of you! Thanks for sharing.
You learn something new everyday. Thanks Steve. Great idea.
Great tip with the telescopic whip! I'll give it a try when we go camping the middle of next month.
I am tired of the whips snapping off while I am driving. I cannot fine replacement whips and end up buying a whole new antenna.
I love your use of the telescopic section.
I would not recommend driving with a telescopic whip. Use them static mobile.
Genius. Thanks for the trick
Nice content. Thanks buddy.
Superb video. Thanks for sharing 73. N1toq
Thanks for the great tip Ham Radio Portable!
Great video. thanks Steve
Thanks, Steve. Great tip. 73
Great 💡
Whenever possible use a hard wired connection to the vehicle body for connecting the shield side of the feed line. Especially on lower frequency bands (40/80/160 meters a small mag mount that capacitively couples the shield side of the feed line to the vehicle body/counterpoise is very lossy.
Also on 40/80/160 meters in order to achieve the lowest possible SWR you will invariably need to have some shunt reactance across the feed point . Typically 500 pf on 40, 500-1000 pf on 80, and 1000-1500 pf on 160. Small shunt coils can also be used, about 6 turns of No.14 insulated stranded wire close wound on a medium soaked prescription pill bottle works well on 40 and often 80 meters. Using the shunt reactance will get the SWR at resonance down to well below 1.5/1. Many of the installation instructions supplied with Hamsticks including the original Lakeshores and OPEKs discuss the need for the shunt reactance at the feed point but I’ve newer seen them discussed in any of the numerous TH-cam Hamstick videos. Actually, any electrically short vertical antenna will likely need some impedance matching reactance at the feed point. Typically, on 20 through 10 meters, you can get a near perfect 1/1 SWR on any properly installed and directly hardwired grounded to the vehicle body counterpoise mobile antenna, Hamsticks included.
Chris AJ1G
What I forgot to add to the above comment was that the shunt reactance is typically not needed on 20 meters and higher frequency bands to achieve low SWRs at resonance
Re cutting off the bottom of a Hamstick type antenna, as long as the stinger rod stays above the close wound loading coil windings in the lower section of the antenna, you will not have a problem. Keep in mind that if you do shorten the stinger you will limit how low in frequency you will be able to resonate the antenna. In over 20 years of using Hamsticks and other types of mobile antennas,!Ive never had to shorten a stinger to achieve resonance at the high end of a band.
That said, your Idea of using a telescopic upper section is great. However, I wouldn’t use one while driving around. Probably wouldn’t survive bonking on tree branches very well compared to a stainless steel rod stinger.
I have attached small telescopic extensions typically up to 18 inches, to the top of my center loaded manually adjustable 1960s vintage Webster Bandspanner multiband mobile 80-10 meter antenna to provide smoother adjustment of resonance across a given band. Finding resonance on 40 meters and higher bands with it by sliding the stinger up and down along its internal loading coil is very touchy. The “vernier” adjustment with the small telescopic tip section makes it very easy to move around the band. Also the added length allows full coverage of 80 meters. The as designed Bandspanner runs out of adjustable stinger length below about 3700 kHz.
I make the vernier stinger extensions out of small telescopic pocket magnetic tip pick up sticks sold at places like Harbor Freight and Ocean State Job Lot for a few bucks each.
Thanks Chris for the good information here. You have lots of experience with hamsticks. How would you get a ground to the body when using a single mag mount? And yea, don't drive with a telescopic antenna. Steve - Ad4xt
The metal base of the mag mount above the plastic film should be connected to the shield side of the feed line. Drill a hole in the medal base to attach an as short as possible grounding wire that can be connected to the car body. A good spot on an SUV is at the left rear corner of the roof, place the max mount there and run a bet short wire attached to the body at the upper left corner of the lip of the lift gate just below the inner side of the weather strip on lift gate sill/frame. Be sure to keep the grounding wire short, preferably no more than maybe 6 inches or so. It can run over the weatherstrip, never have had a problem with leakage from such a wire. Be sure to scrape/grind down around the holes on the msg mount base and vehicle ground point to bare metal for a solid low resistance connection. On a sedan, put the antenna on the trunk lid and run a short grounding wire to the deck
lid frame. Both ways will keep the connection point hidden with lift gate or trunk lid closed.
@@hamradioportable1630 Do a search for GRA-MAT50 for a capacitive solution. You might need an SO239 mag mount with an adaptor to 3/8-24 to get the ground out to the antenna side without having to drill into a mag mount to make the connection.
TNX Steve - great video - 73 John, KB3H
That is ingenious! Robert KD4YDC
I have never had to cut anything off! Tunes up just fine with the whip inside.
What brand telescopic whip is the most durable?
Static mobile only with a telescopic whip. Go with whatever you can find that's not too long. You only need one around 50 inches to cover most all of the hamsticks on the market. Steve - Ad4xt
Yep, them grub screws and allen wrenches always go missing ! 73 M7BLC
Great video. That looks like a TW1 Super Antenna whip since it's 44 inches. They do not show in stock at this time.
Yes that's exactly what it is. I have seen a 5' on the dxengineering website.
www.dxengineering.com/parts/mfj-1963?seid=dxese1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr9m3BhDHARIsANut04ZDEmE9z6vOc7XNzH9vy-3Ynu20Ueyf8Z7DrRhGOmDUN3u-eKVVVeIaArHoEALw_wcB
Now to find one of those whips I have a 5.6m one but think that's a little to long 😂
Any idea where I can find this Whip? All I can find is 2.5 m whips which are way too long? David W9SSS
www.dxengineering.com/parts/mfj-1963?seid=dxese1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr9m3BhDHARIsANut04ZDEmE9z6vOc7XNzH9vy-3Ynu20Ueyf8Z7DrRhGOmDUN3u-eKVVVeIaArHoEALw_wcB
where can I find a telescopic whip shown in this video?
check buddypole.com www.buddipole.com/lotewh.html
Nice
Like your cheat sheet, I think I will try my 17' whip with an auto tuner then I won't need a cheat sheet. Great idea with the ham stick. This would be like having a loaded 17' whip. I am listening to your video through headphone and lose the left audio around 7:14
I plan to do the same with a 17' telescopic antenna i picked up from gigaparts.
I'm using a wireless mic system. It may have had a short drop out in one channel. Did not notice when editing. Thanks Steve - Ad4xt
how did you initially remove the stinger? on my shark hamstick, i can't seem to make it budge
Should be a hex screw. You will unscrew it anyway to use a telescopic whip.
There are two different hamstick versions, the expensive ones and the cheap ones. The expensive ones have the top section where you can unscrew it as seen in the video, with a 3/8-24 thread in the bottom section. The cheap ones don't have that, they just have the top section of the base with the whip going straight in. They have one grub screw, not two as well. Those ones can't be used to do this mod.
@@paulsengupta971 that's good to know. Thanks.
Any recommendation for out of apartment window using my new YAESU FT-991A, 73s
I have talked to several folks using a hamstick on a mag mount stuck to the metal railing. Maybe a metal lid to a 55 gal. drum. Good luck Steve - Ad4xt
First thing is to throw away the Allen wrench and set screws and get thumb screws at Home Depot
HRO has these.
Tip: post a link to the extendable screw on part you use
www.buddipole.com/lotewh.html
The real tip would be finding that telescoping antenna!! 😂
Here you go. buddypole.com www.buddipole.com/lotewh.html
Some connect a string to the top of the antenna and put knots where the bands are.
That would work too. Knowing me I would end up using the string for something else. Thanks for watching. Steve - Ad4xt
Great idea! I just happened to have an adjustable whip. I am going to try this. 7 3 DE: EA4/KF0XO
Nice