Glad you found something that works! Looking forward to your on-air experiments and seeing the results of this antenna with the coil. Yes, it is nice living further south in the winter months for sure. Stay well!
I'm using the same antenna, MFJ-2286, and have been very pleased with the performance. I have mine mounted on a 4' ground rod and am currently using the four stock 12' radial wires. Great video.
Congratulations with the nice set-up ! It's exactly the same I am using, the same coil, the same whip! The only difference is that I have this combo mounted on the roof-rack of my Radio Van. The results are outstanding with this antenna, for details , I have a short video on my channel. I run just one elevated resonant radial because it's quickest way to deploy it up. If the radials are laying on the ground, I think the length of radials per/band is not that important since they are making a ground plane in this case. The number of the radials is more important in the on-ground version (meaning, 5 shorter is better than 3 longer, for example). I've also found it very easy to find the resonance of the antenna by changing the point of the tap on the coil by simply clipping the croco connector to different coil windings and listening for the loudest noise in the radio at the same time. Usually the SWR on transmit is in the right range or close with this method. It only takes some fine moving of the croco one-two windings up or down for the final adjustment. The coil is actually needed for only 40 and 30 m bands, for the 20-6m the plain whip is easily adjustable by telescoping it down. I often use the ATU though on these bands instead of manual telescoping for the sake of convienience since my van is some 2m 45cm ( 8 feet?) hight at that point so I would need to actually take the whip down in order to change its length. Please go on with more experiments! 73! Linas LY2H.
Hey friend, I just watched your video. I think I will do something like that also. An elevated radial(s) of some sort. Thanks for the tip. I can't wait to get back out there!
I run the MFJ-1979 whip with a 22" Buddiepole Accessory Antenna Arm on a UM2 Super Mount with up to twelve 33' radials for 20M. By using the Accessory Antenna Arm, I can adjust my SWR down to near 1:1. With Super Mount, I can clamp the mount to a grill or use the SuperSpike for a rapid deployment. Using this configuration, I've been able to hit New Zealand, Japan, Russia and Italy using 18w on FT8 using a Xiegu G-90 from the St. Louis Metro East area. To go beyond 20M, I use the WRG Mini Coil with great success with the same 33' radials.
Wow! I can't believe I was the 1st to find you new video!. glad to see you made improvements. what is there is a form of a "Loading coil" two basic components to mobile antennas are L & C. you injected L. . Look at any old ARRL Mobile books/ articles loading coils are prevalent in many circumstances and their properties and functions are explained far better than I can do here. But happy to see you can at least use your idea now and be happy with some results over last try. thanks agn Tom and keep up the good work and videos. and for sharing. de Ellis WA1RKS
It does not need the coil above 20 Meters because the 17' whip is long enough to be a 1/4 Wavelength vertical. Get a short jumper coax to tune the antenna at its feedpoint, rather than at the far end of the coax. Tune looking to minimize _reactance, not SWR._
Glad to see coil working! I suggested WR coil and I'm assuming this MFJ coul is along the same item. Thanks so much for sharing your testing success. Being new to HF with little experience I'm learning and enjoy viedos such as yours.
Hey n9yo...you can, and you have gotten the 17 foot whip to work on 20 meters without the coil. However, that is only under certain conditions. As the manual states, and as you have it set up in this video at first, the coil clip is at the top. That setting will also work on a tripod, or on a ground stake...or where/whatever..in other words, add the coil and you're done. Now you just adjust the whip length or the clip and boom...flat across either part of the band...cw or voice. I think your radials are better than the supplied copper wire radials in the 2286 kit because they just lay out much much easier. Great job !
Maybe the inductance of the added coil is canceling the capacitive effect the vehicle body is having on the vertical whip. Just thinking out loud. enjoy your videos immensely.
@@hamradiocq I went back to part 1 and saw the comment you were talking about. I did not mean to restate something someone else had said. have a great day
P.s. from my experience so far with the whip on different bands, I didn't need to adjust radial length. The manual suggested getting rid of them entirely on certain bands. Have fun ! It has amazing receive.
I like how you go out into the field experimenting with new and different setups and items. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't But it's a learning experience for everyone. Thanks for sharing! Did you ever get that hard case for the IC-7300? 73's
You inspired me with this video. Since I already own a 17 foot telescopic word and coil, I Purchased the large 24 inch tripod from Wolf River Coils. To use as either a backpack type set up or to bring with me when I travel for work.
Great video. Set up as you did, in what direction was the antenna directional ? Also, using the body of the car via a direct connection of a wire from the mount to the frame (Cleaned up metal at contact points) may yield different or better results. I doubt if there is much connectivity from the mount to the hitch....Just food for thought.
Stop messing with ground radials and move up to the world of elevated folded counter poise’s. Check out K2AV has a great web page 😉😉 simple clean fun KC3ONO
Success. I like videos like this. I also like your older cw videos.
Thanks so much. I plan on doing all different kinds of videos in the future just mix and match as my interest change. Love CW!
This is one of the reasons you are my favorite ham radio youtube channel. You are always trying new ideas out.
Awesome thanks for the great comment Mark. I have some new mounts and antennas coming in the mail. Stay tuned for more experiments.
I wish I had time to go out and play like that. I'm glad guys like you have the opportunity to do so and bring content online for others to watch.
I don't have much time either, just occasionally
Be prepared. When winter really hits you’ll find below zero wind chills are no joke 😝
Glad you found something that works! Looking forward to your on-air experiments and seeing the results of this antenna with the coil. Yes, it is nice living further south in the winter months for sure. Stay well!
Hey KX4UL, I am hoping to do a POTA soon with this or a similar setup. I have more products coming to test with.
I'm using the same antenna, MFJ-2286, and have been very pleased with the performance. I have mine mounted on a 4' ground rod and am currently using the four stock 12' radial wires. Great video.
Thanks for sharing
Germany is waving a hand. Nice job you did there. I am sure this works out fine. Keep up good work & stay safe. 73's de Günter
Thanks, will do!
Congratulations with the nice set-up ! It's exactly the same I am using, the same coil, the same whip! The only difference is that I have this combo mounted on the roof-rack of my Radio Van. The results are outstanding with this antenna, for details , I have a short video on my channel. I run just one elevated resonant radial because it's quickest way to deploy it up. If the radials are laying on the ground, I think the length of radials per/band is not that important since they are making a ground plane in this case. The number of the radials is more important in the on-ground version (meaning, 5 shorter is better than 3 longer, for example). I've also found it very easy to find the resonance of the antenna by changing the point of the tap on the coil by simply clipping the croco connector to different coil windings and listening for the loudest noise in the radio at the same time. Usually the SWR on transmit is in the right range or close with this method. It only takes some fine moving of the croco one-two windings up or down for the final adjustment. The coil is actually needed for only 40 and 30 m bands, for the 20-6m the plain whip is easily adjustable by telescoping it down. I often use the ATU though on these bands instead of manual telescoping for the sake of convienience since my van is some 2m 45cm ( 8 feet?) hight at that point so I would need to actually take the whip down in order to change its length. Please go on with more experiments! 73! Linas LY2H.
Hey friend, I just watched your video. I think I will do something like that also. An elevated radial(s) of some sort. Thanks for the tip. I can't wait to get back out there!
I run the MFJ-1979 whip with a 22" Buddiepole Accessory Antenna Arm on a UM2 Super Mount with up to twelve 33' radials for 20M. By using the Accessory Antenna Arm, I can adjust my SWR down to near 1:1. With Super Mount, I can clamp the mount to a grill or use the SuperSpike for a rapid deployment. Using this configuration, I've been able to hit New Zealand, Japan, Russia and Italy using 18w on FT8 using a Xiegu G-90 from the St. Louis Metro East area. To go beyond 20M, I use the WRG Mini Coil with great success with the same 33' radials.
Hey Duane thanks for sharing your setup. I'd like to see a pic.
Your work paid off!
Yeah, Gotta try a lil of everything.
I was wanting to use my antenna while driving
Wow! I can't believe I was the 1st to find you new video!. glad to see you made improvements. what is there is a form of a "Loading coil" two basic components to mobile antennas are L & C. you injected L. . Look at any old ARRL Mobile books/ articles loading coils are prevalent in many circumstances and their properties and functions are explained far better than I can do here. But happy to see you can at least use your idea now and be happy with some results over last try. thanks agn Tom and keep up the good work and videos. and for sharing. de Ellis WA1RKS
Great job Ellis I'm glad you are here. I guess I need to bone-up on loading coils because I was surprised to see this work out my friend. 73 Ellis
I just ordered an mfj antenna like yours today with the bug catcher. I'm looking fwd to playing with it.
Jeff ke4fwe
Hey, I love that 17' whip it's great for 20M and on up as you can see. What is a bug catcher? I've heard that before but I donno?
@@hamradiocq it's a generic term for your coil. When mobile a coil like that would catch many bugs going down the road. Ha
I got two of them, and mounted them horizontally for a rotating dipole works pretty good.
Interesting Dennis.
It does not need the coil above 20 Meters because the 17' whip is long enough to be a 1/4 Wavelength vertical. Get a short jumper coax to tune the antenna at its feedpoint, rather than at the far end of the coax. Tune looking to minimize _reactance, not SWR._
Glad to see coil working! I suggested WR coil and I'm assuming this MFJ coul is along the same item. Thanks so much for sharing your testing success. Being new to HF with little experience I'm learning and enjoy viedos such as yours.
Thanks, yeah I contacted WR coil and asked if they could get me a discount or a sample and they said heck no, so I said heck with them.
I have the same Rig expert meter. Best tool for HF!! LOVE that thing!
Yeah I just got it. Where has it been all me life?
Hey n9yo...you can, and you have gotten the 17 foot whip to work on 20 meters without the coil. However, that is only under certain conditions. As the manual states, and as you have it set up in this video at first, the coil clip is at the top. That setting will also work on a tripod, or on a ground stake...or where/whatever..in other words, add the coil and you're done. Now you just adjust the whip length or the clip and boom...flat across either part of the band...cw or voice. I think your radials are better than the supplied copper wire radials in the 2286 kit because they just lay out much much easier.
Great job !
You might have been the one that inspired me to order the 2286 kit the other day? Was it it you draining my wallet lol 73 Friend!
@@hamradiocq lol...probably. That may mean that you now have 2 17ft whips... 73 to you too de nx1q
wondering if the ATAS 120 antenna would work with this set up. I like it.
What to do when the wife won’t let you drill holes in the mini van lol 😂
Nah she wouldn't notice
You are the wizard!
Ha! I just trying stuff out. : )
Maybe the inductance of the added coil is canceling the capacitive effect the vehicle body is having on the vertical whip. Just thinking out loud. enjoy your videos immensely.
Hey Victor. Someone said a similar thing on the previous video where I coulddn't get it to work.
@@hamradiocq I went back to part 1 and saw the comment you were talking about. I did not mean to restate something someone else had said. have a great day
P.s. from my experience so far with the whip on different bands, I didn't need to adjust radial length. The manual suggested getting rid of them entirely on certain bands. Have fun ! It has amazing receive.
Thanks for sharing
Where was this in Oklahoma? It looks like it would work for telescopes too.
Arcadia Lake, OK
Setup the whip in the open, like on top of the dam, and you should get the best SWR. Everything around the antenna effects the SWR. K7WHN
Agreed friend.
I like how you go out into the field experimenting with new and different setups and items. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't But it's a learning experience for everyone. Thanks for sharing! Did you ever get that hard case for the IC-7300? 73's
Thank you very much. I'm an amateur, not a pro! lol
You inspired me with this video. Since I already own a 17 foot telescopic word and coil, I Purchased the large 24 inch tripod from Wolf River Coils. To use as either a backpack type set up or to bring with me when I travel for work.
There is "no coil" electrically, the output impedance is "seeing" the jumper wire + the whip. The coil is shorted at that tap.
Ok, thanks.
Great video. Set up as you did, in what direction was the antenna directional ? Also, using the body of the car via a direct connection of a wire from the mount to the frame (Cleaned up metal at contact points) may yield different or better results. I doubt if there is much connectivity from the mount to the hitch....Just food for thought.
Yes and yes. Great ideas tnx fer comment. 73
Stop messing with ground radials and move up to the world of elevated folded counter poise’s. Check out K2AV has a great web page 😉😉 simple clean fun KC3ONO