1. Require less horizontal space to setup than my 80m-10m MFJ-1982MP End Fed-Half-Wave antenna (EFHW).
2. Quicker and to deploy that the MFJ-1982MP
3. No Tall structures required
The EFHW has about 133 feet of radiating wire and needs a fairly tall structure and over 100 feet of horizontal length. This is normally mitigated by pulling it side ways towards trees to give it a "zig-zag" pattern coming down. However that only seems to shorted the run-out space by about 20-30% at the must.
Deploying this antenna can be done in as little at 330 minutes, provided I find a a decent enough tree, and I sling the throw bag and rope around the target branch on the first throw. I don't have the best of records, however, this hasn't happened often. The longest it has taken was over and hour that is just too long.
Some parks just don’t have a decent trees to support the dumb-end of the antenna or I am not able to sling a rope up to a good branch. I do carry a 20ft painter pole on the roof, but I would like to eliminate that too. Also, while I have not had any bad experiences with park rangers or officials, I'm sure that I am doing a better part, not breaking branches trying to get an antenna in a tree.
Enter the POTA Performer. Please watch Michael's video . Link: This antenna does not have 80m but is good on 40m and Up. The parts can all be aquired farley easily.
Below is the list of parts I used.
- Tripod or other 52 inch mast. Greg (the designer) used a 40-inch piece of furniture-grade PCV pipe, a stake and threaded coupling.
- Insulating plates for my tripod. I designed a set and is available on Thingiverse Link
- (4) 1/4-20 x 2 inch long stainless bolts from Lowes item 396457
- Chameleon CHA SS17 17’ telescoping whip from HRO. Their house brand OPEK is $10 less link.
- Procomm JBC-995 Mirror Mount
- Generic Red wire 18AWG from Walmart item 1172297
- Borrowed RF Choke (I need to purchase my own)
- 20 pairs of 1/4 inch spade terminals
- Terminal Crimper (I don’t have a good one. no link to provide) - (4) 1/4" ring terminals from NAPA auto parts. (no link to provide)
- (2) 8-inch zip ties
- 8 inches of generic trimmer line. (Used to crate the band link isolator)
- (2) 48 inch Electric fence post from Tractor Supply Link. (I used purcple so it would be more visible)
Optional items
- Generic Blue 5mm shrink tube. (I used this to differentiate the two radials
- 5mm Shrink tube for Epson label printer(I used this to label each radial link for what band it is used on
- Generic corkscrew Dog tie-out. (Used to stabilize the tripod when the radials are pulling in their respective directions)
- (5) feet of generic para cord. (Used to stabilize the tripod when the radials pulling in their respective directions)
Chart of Results. I performed these tests twice in my backyard. Once with the antenna mirror mount connected directly to the neck of the tripod, and once with 3D Printed insulting plates. Below are the both sets of results.
