I use 1/32 cable on a plastic divers reel. I put copper swages on it at the length of each band and pull the wire out until its resonant on the band I want. Since there's no insulation on the cable all the wire still on the reel it doesn't add much length to the antenna electrically. its small and light weight. I use it as a vertical with radials or horizontal. I ordered a second reel to do a dipole. I hope this makes sense. GL 73
I've been thinking of doing something like this myself. I may try something like that with an old Filiment spool I have laying around, I like the idea of marking it with the swages for each band, Thanks for the idea!
Chameleon use to sell one of those boxes but it only had one feed point to use either band no need to select one or the other and no switch. Nice video, did you think about using 4 ham stick on the same band?
I thought about it, but from what I have seen, a fan dipole is not as good at one band as a dedicated dipole for that band. with the compromised nature of the ham sticks, I didn't want to give up anything by sharing it with other bands on other ham sticks. My understanding is that in a setup like that the power will go to where it is most resonant, but there is some loss compared to a single banded antenna. I am focusing on 40 and 80 meter and want all I can get out of those bands with the option of other bands on the other BNC connector. Maybe that don't make sense, just trying to get all I can out of compromised antenna's. I think I will end up using the ham sticks on my truck with a Yaesu FT-891 with a EFHW under the seat. I'd like to see how that works and I may make a BNC Antenna switch to swap between the ham sticks and a external mounted BNC port for the EFHW if I want. The EFHW seems to work really well with the FT891 on multiple bands with no tuner and it does have 100W as opposed to the 20w in the G90 so I may be able to overcome some of the losses in the antenna that way. I can use the ham sticks when mobile on 10/15/20 meter and the 40 meter dipole setup with the two mounted horizontally. If I want to stop and geta better SWR, I can use the EFHW. I'd like to see how it would work with someone in the camper while driving around in the truck. Either way, I am still learning about all this and could have all of my facts wrong, but I enjoy learning this stuff anyway.
I use 1/32 cable on a plastic divers reel. I put copper swages on it at the length of each band and pull the wire out until its resonant on the band I want. Since there's no insulation on the cable all the wire still on the reel it doesn't add much length to the antenna electrically. its small and light weight. I use it as a vertical with radials or horizontal. I ordered a second reel to do a dipole. I hope this makes sense. GL 73
I've been thinking of doing something like this myself. I may try something like that with an old Filiment spool I have laying around, I like the idea of marking it with the swages for each band, Thanks for the idea!
Chameleon use to sell one of those boxes but it only had one feed point to use either band no need to select one or the other and no switch.
Nice video, did you think about using 4 ham stick on the same band?
I thought about it, but from what I have seen, a fan dipole is not as good at one band as a dedicated dipole for that band. with the compromised nature of the ham sticks, I didn't want to give up anything by sharing it with other bands on other ham sticks. My understanding is that in a setup like that the power will go to where it is most resonant, but there is some loss compared to a single banded antenna. I am focusing on 40 and 80 meter and want all I can get out of those bands with the option of other bands on the other BNC connector. Maybe that don't make sense, just trying to get all I can out of compromised antenna's.
I think I will end up using the ham sticks on my truck with a Yaesu FT-891 with a EFHW under the seat. I'd like to see how that works and I may make a BNC Antenna switch to swap between the ham sticks and a external mounted BNC port for the EFHW if I want. The EFHW seems to work really well with the FT891 on multiple bands with no tuner and it does have 100W as opposed to the 20w in the G90 so I may be able to overcome some of the losses in the antenna that way. I can use the ham sticks when mobile on 10/15/20 meter and the 40 meter dipole setup with the two mounted horizontally. If I want to stop and geta better SWR, I can use the EFHW. I'd like to see how it would work with someone in the camper while driving around in the truck.
Either way, I am still learning about all this and could have all of my facts wrong, but I enjoy learning this stuff anyway.