Fishing for DX with a Five Band Portable Antenna

摘要

I enjoy getting out to the countryside with my portable rig and operating QRP on the five bands between 10 and 20 meters. While my Elecraft K1 was an easy choice, my antenna design evolved over time as the result of numerous experiments. The configuration I finally arrived at is five quarter-wave vertical monopoles in parallel and driven against 16 radials laid on the ground (see Figure 1). Having one tuned element per band means that I can switch between bands without the need for an antenna tuner. While a single portable vertical element is a trivial construction challenge, a portable antenna with five vertical elements proved to be a different case. First we'll look at the problems I had to overcome, as well as the mechanical aspects of this antenna, and then we'll look at the antenna's electrical characteristics.