[TowerTalk] JAMAICA ANTENNA

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:32:12 -0500, Michael Mark wrote:

>I want to bring a small ICOM rig and an antenna.

You didn't say what bands you want to operate. One of the nicest 
and easiest portable antennas to drag on an airline is the 
telescoping fiberglass pole made by DK9SQ. It collapses to 1M in 
length and telescopes to be a quarter wave on 40M. Simply tape a 
length of wire to the top of it and clamp it onto the frame of 
that deck. Then drop a second wire down from the deck to act as a 
counterpoise. Or bond the radio to the frame of the building. 
Users have learned that the pole is lossy at RF, so you don't want 
to tape the wire to the pole for its full length, but if you 
simply use the pole as a support it works very well. This kind of 
setup will get you on all bands 40-10M with suitable lengths of 
wire. 

My local club back in Chicago has a QRP night once a year in a 
county park. I used a rig exactly like this with my K2, and did 
quite well with it on 30 and 20. I avoided 40, only to avoid 
giving grief to other members who were working that band. 

Google for DK9SQ to find the pole. It sells for about $100. I'm 
told that MFJ sells a similar product for about $20 less. I 
haven't seen any comments on quality. I've also seen "beefier" 
versions of this pole for more money. 

73,

Jim K9YC