I wanted a way to get on the air quickly when operating HF portable. Introducing the Mad Dog Coil - an alternative to a Wolf River Coil. Simply attach your antenna whip/wire to the top bolt, adjust the collar on the coil, connect radial/counterpoise wires to the ground socket, and you're good to go! Get one here https://maddogcoils.com.au/
Hi Hayden, Nice they do work well just with the whip (5m) mount and then pull out the weight tend to open the and then every thing slips down only is to get new whip I use 9ft and 17 ft can also use a wire in diffrent lenthe , I have a 7" coil and 13m to do 80m Thank you, Pieter, ZL1PDT/ZL1LIG, 73 good show
If price is not an option and you want something that appears to be of higher quality, check out the new Portable Resonate Vertical from Chameleon Antenna https://chameleonantenna.com/shop-here/ols/products/cha-mcc Curt WU3U
The antennas shown are still base loaded, ground mounted verticals, like the WRC, and that is the LEAST efficient configuration you can use ...
I have over 16,000 contacts in 8 years with what you consider the LEAST efficient antenna design. 85% of them are on phone with 15% on them a mix of weak signal modes like FT8 and CW. Just because it doesn’t look good in practicality doesn’t mean it’s not a good antenna to use. Could I have made more contacts with a different antenna design? That’s debatable but I’m sure having a lot of fun. Curt WU3U
I also have a ton of contacts with my base loaded vertical. I live in a HOA where antennas are dirty words. The vertical is 14 feet high and sits 3 feet off the ground. I have two counterpoises also 3 feet off the ground and 180 degrees apart. It is actually a ground plane and I get 58 reports on SSB and 589 reports on CW from all over the world. With only two counterpoises, it really accents the transmission pattern off the ends of the counterpoises in the direction of each. Get very good reports broadside to the counterpoises. Best worked DX is from California to South Africa , 10240 miles away. I'd say the antenna is working well....even though it is the least efficient antenna design.
I use a Wolf River coil on my boat. It works very well. The coil is stainless, in a maritime setting, this is good. No corrosion.
Your vertical may be base loaded, but being elevated with elevated counterpoise radials it is NOT in the same category as a ground mounted vertical, like sticking a WRC on a spike in the ground or a 1 foot tall tripod. Having 5000 or 15000 contacts in a log is not the same as antenna analysis. Using a base loaded, ground mounted vertical will give radiation efficiency much less than 25%. All those 10000 log contacts prove is that you can work a bunch of people running QRP power levels, which is what is radiated from that antenna with a 100w signal going into it. The rest of the power is being absorbed by the earth, not going anywhere useful.
I agree that it is not antenna analysis by any means but it's always funny when "experienced" hams will say, "you can't make contacts on a vertical", "a real ham puts up a beam", "life is too short for QRP", "don't use an end fed antenna" etc. This hobby is what you make it or want it to be. Sure there is a difference in antenna efficiency between all antennas but I find that I am actively making more contacts per month than most people that want to split hairs on what the right antenna is to use. I'm sure there's some guy out there with stacked beams saying, "you never want to use a dipole or a G5RV, they are just not efficient". It's about getting on the air and what works for you with real estate or financial resources that you have to work with. Curt WU3U
I'd love to be able to find that threaded pipe (or whatever its called) in the states. My Google Fu is weak when it comes to finding this stuff locally. What is shipping time to the USA?
Looking for the write-up or YouTube using a Wolf River, Mad Dog, or similar coil in a portable, nearly top-loaded config. That could be a winter project here... would need aluminum tubing to 3/8th-24 adpater(s) of some sort. I wonder if DX Eng sells tubing adapter donuts for different sizes of tubing that would slip into the open tubing end and be machine screwed into place, or if I need to have a local machine shop make some, so I can use and or possibly sell them. The base "donut" would need to be tall as it would need to handle some lateral force... so a good amount of solid stock would need to enter the base tubing end. I suppose it would be good to move the coil away from the base-fed, lossy current end...
if you think the wolf river coil sucks ( cant imagine why you think it sucks ), this mad dog antenna isnt gonna be any different. I use a wrc, and have great receive, and get great signal reports.
