[TowerTalk] Need Input on Best Antenna for Stationary RV

Tony Brock-Fisher barockteer at aol.com
Mon Aug 10 10:58:00 PDT 2009


I have a 29 foot class C motorhome. I tried using a screwdriver antenna, mounted to the ladder, and grounded into the steel body frame. This worked but it wasn't wonderful. I have been experimenting with various antennas, and have found what I think is the best compromise:

I use a 33 foot fiberglass pole (from Jackite) to support the center of an inverted Vee cut for 20 meters. I simply tape the pole to the ladder with electrical tape. One leg of the Vee is tied with kite string to the driver's side rear view mirror. The other leg goes to a nearby tree branch. The antenna can be set up or taken down in 5 minutes. It is short enough that I just wind it all up on a plastic soda bottle. I feed this with small diameter coax to a LDG Z-100 tuner at the rig. I can tune this up on anything from 80 thru 10 meters. It doesn't require a ground plane to the vehicle and is basically a balanced antenna. It works much better than the screwdriver antenna.

-Tony, K1KP


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