The EMCOMM III Portable antenna is a portable High Frequency (HF) antenna capable of covering bands 160m - 6m, and can handle 100 watts SSB and 50 watts on CW, RTTY, FM, AM. This antenna is great for hiking, backpacking, and camping. It is also useful for military, government agencies, non- governmental organizations (NGOs), Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS), Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) / Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), CERT and any and all ham radio operators involved in field communication and those preparing for any natural or man made disasters.
I like the flexibility of this antenna. A few points: The Chameleon website says this is a 10-160M antenna vs a 6-160M, and that it weighs 1.5 pounds vs 1 pound. If adding the 4 twenty-five foot counterpoise and 50 foot coax feed with choke, I'd reckon the entire package would be closer to 5 pounds, which I still consider very reasonable for portable use. They also could have integrated the feed line choke into the balun box (4:1 plus 1:1 = hybrid) and not made it necessary to purchase a separate feed line choke.
Yes it is very flexible, and the size is great! It goes up pretty quick and can be taken down even faster! The Owners manual on page 13, under Specifications says, "Frequency: 1.8 MHz through 55.0 MHz continuous (including all Amateur Radio Service bands 160m to 6m)." "Weight: Approximately 1 lb" Of course adding the counterpoise kit and coax will drive up the weight. I agree 5 pounds is a reasonable weight for a portable antenna.
Great video. One of the short comings of wire antennas in ECOM deployments is: Where do I hang my wire from. Your video highlights this matter. Additionally, as odd as it sounds, in the disasters I deploy to (hurricanes in the Caribbean) I can hardly find a spot that has a. a tall standing object b. next to where I need to transmit. To your credit you've traveled with a painters pole and manged to get deployed. On the down side, no contacts were made, which while unfortunate, is more about conditions than the wonderful antenna. For a true all in one deployment that carries everything I made a manpack (12ah Lifepo4 battery, Tuner, 857d and Multiple antennas (wire and vertical) see my video at : (a few years old now, but same kit is still 100% functional) Chameleon makes great products and I will consider this new antenna for my portable deployments. Thanks for the introduction!
Bwahahaha. Welcome to the commercialization of ham radio. I love the quote, "I have high hopes for this [no contacts] antenna when the bands improve." We are just now approaching the bottom of the sun cycle, so perhaps in 5 to 7 years this thing might pick up someone. Anyone who has ever built wire antennas knows that you can tune just about anything to 1.1, including a barbed wire fence, but that doesn't mean it will propagate worth a damn! My other comment is why in the heck do you want height on an EMCOMM antenna. You need a NVIS antenna for close in work. If you install an antenna up at 1/2 wave you probably won't hear much within 500-700 miles An NVIS antenna is what will get you contacts within that 500 mile radius. So unless you are going to set up 500+ miles away from the hurricane impact zone, install it low like the video shows. Putting it at 7 to 8 feet above the ground will bounce the signals off the atmosphere right above you rather than skipping out hundreds of miles. Just saying...