Looking for a good vertical antenna for HF. My wife and I are currently living full time in a motor home so it would need to be fairly easy to put up and take down. There was a ham or a company in Michigan that made something like that but can't come up with the name of it. Part of the aging process I guess. 73 W8GV
I have used the CrankIR from SteppIr for several years. It is a high performance antenna with a high performance price. It works very well and stores in a bag not much bigger than a gym bag. Perfect for RVing. https://consumer.steppir.com/shop/vertical-antennas/crankir-80m-2m-vertical-antenna-package/ Brian KB3WFV
Superantenna MP1 is the best price performance ratio around at the moment. It's a well built screwdriver type antenna that comes in a number of kit forms. The basic kit costs just over £200 and gets you 40m through to 2m with a basic mount. I got a special offer deal on the high-end package which includes the 80m coil, a very solid tripod and the multiband radials pack all in a very robust carry bag. The list price of that is over £500, but it has given me excellent service both in the field and maritime mobile on our boat. Martin (G8FXC)
My friend was a full timer. He put a mount for a jackite pole on the top of the back ladder. He used a ultamax DX 100 antenna. He ran the coax and permanently mounted that. One stopped he would hook the coax to the match box of the antenna and velcro the wire to the jackite pole set the jackite pole in the mount and he was good to go. In the end did not cost all that much. He got me turned on to the ultamax antenna. I still use the same setup on my house.
I used an Alpha FMJ with good results...so good, in fact, that people didn't believe what I was running when I would tell them. I also used it on my balcony at my house while I was waiting for my towers to be completed, and always had good luck. Fits in a long duffle bag and can literally be set up or taken down in 2 minutes. From the west coast, I could basically reach anywhere in the US, worked a lot of DX to Asia and South America, and very occassional DX to Europe and Africa, and that's on SSB @100w. I didn't do a lot of FT8 back then. My friend uses a DX Commander, with incredibly good results. It outperforms the Alpha by a good amount (not surprising), but it's also considerably larger, uses a bunch of radials, and takes considerably longer to set up. That also breaks down into a large duffle bag. He talks all over the world with that using 100w.
60ft fiberglass telescopic pole, 80-10m end fed wire, 49:1 transformer. Alternatively, as noted above, the DX Commander (as long as you have space for the radials). With practice it can be put up relatively quickly. Ali.
Hustler 6BTV is pretty quick and easy to put up and get tuned. I have Muscular Dystrophy and use a wheelchair for mobility and I can put it up and take it down by myself. Stretch out a couple of ground radials for good measure although I have made contacts with none down. Breaks down to a fairly easy to manage bundle to store until you get stopped again.
I use a Tarheel 100A-HP screwdriver that is mounted on the top of the back ladder with a Tarheel Lift-n-Lay motorized tilt system. Once installed, it will be just a push of button to nest the antenna for travel. Antenna tuning via a Turbo2 screwdriver antenna tuner (latest firmware). It is not necessary, but once the antenna is vertical I might add a elevated radial or two pending lot conditions and the rules. I used to use a Cushcraft R-7 which would take about 30min to put together or take down. The Tarheel 100A-HP is a large coil and operates 6-80 with ease. Pic's of the install on QRZ.
