Vertical Antenna for Tight Spaces
Channel: HB9EAJ Portable Radio
Date: 2023-08-06

This video shows a vertical ham radio antenna system that is mostly composed of commercial parts. 

The focus of this antenna is space-restricted places or summits, where a wire antenna does not fit. The whole antenna system weighs in total 740g or 26oz. 

This antenna was extensively tested on several SOTA summits, from the 40m-band up to the 6m-band. 

Parts:
The antenna itself is a widely used base-loaded antenna that is sold under different brand names, such as GABIL 7350T, Sharman MD-3500, Kommunica HF-PRO-2-PLUS-T, or recently, the MA-8300 from WIMO:
https://www.wimo.com/en/ma-8300-portable-vertical-shortwave-50mhz-antenna

The antenna-mounting bracket consists of a 25cm-long ground spike with a BNC feeder-connector from the eBay seller bd7-maple:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/176315778321

Originally, I discovered this similar bracket from the YouTube channel @HOAHamRadio.

I added 8 x 2.6m-long radial wires with loops at the end for easy handling. I use two banana plugs to quickly connect the radials to the mounting bracket. Each banana plug is connected to an M4 O-terminal which is screwed to the bracket housing.

I used a 3m-long RG174A/U coaxial feeder cable with two mounted BNC plugs from SOTABEAMS:
https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/co-axial-cable-rg174a-u-with-or-without-connectors-fitted/

To keep the radial wires and coax tidy, I use a wire winder from SOTABEAMS:
https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/antenna-wire-winders/

Resources:
Transceiver TX-500: https://lab599.com/
Portable 7-Band EFHW Antenna: https://hb9sota.ch/hb9eaj/
Video edited with Davinci Resolve: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

#Antenna #Vertical-Antenna #HamRadio #OutdoorOps #SOTA #Switzerland