Alternative location

This weekend whilst visiting the YL I took my Kenwood TS450 along and set up an HF station using the portable "Buddistick" antenna. Operating time was very limited  as it wouldn't be polite to spent my time on the radio when I am supposed to be spending time with the YL, but I did manage an hour or two of radio time over the weekend!
Additionally  the antenna had to be placed in a corner of the small garden, out of the way of inquisitive young children! Sadly HF conditions were not too good  but I did manage a QSO on 40 metres SSB into Northern Ireland as well as a chat to a more local GW station. The Buddistick does work but its quite difficult to tune and changing bands  means going out to the antenna to move a tapping point on the coil.CW is your friend with this antenna , I have always found SSB contacts with it quite difficult. It is an easily portable antenna but its small size has limitations.

Buddistick in position at the alternative location

The "Alternative" shack. (The "Stuff" behind the radio isnt mine by the way!)

As an alternative to the Buddistick for portable work,I have recently purchased a Pro-Whip portable antenna. This is basically a glassfibre fishing pole, 6 metres high with a wire running up inside it, a 9:1 Unun at the base with a wire counterpoise. I have only had time to briefly set up this antnena at the weekend but first impressions are quite good. It is very easy to deploy, tunes from 80-10 metres using just the internal ATU in the TS450 and seems livelier than the Buddistick. I hope to update the blog in the coming weeks with my experience of the Pro-Whip.

Pro-Whip on test in my garden

Testing...

Since I am hoping to take a trip to Cornwall for a few days shortly I thought I would assemble and test out my portable station. The fine weather this evening provided the ideal opportunity.

First I dug out the Yaesu FT857, removing it from the shack an replacing it with this old Yaesu FT211 which is fine for 2 metre FM use.

Next I took out my 12 volt portable pack and set up the FT857, Buddistick antenna, MFJ tuner and my "new" mini CW key and set it all up in the back garden.

The Buddistick was set up on the lawn and tuned for 40 metres

After tuning around a very lively 40 metre band I tried listening on CW. I was rewarded by a QSO with G0NXA. I was running 25watts and got a 559 report, not bad for the tiny Buddistick with two radial wires laid on the lawn!
At least I know the setup is working, hopefully I will have time to use it when I am Away.

Out and About

I had the opportunity to go portable again today.The weather was superb and the nice cool breeze on top of the mountain was very welcome. This time I took my old camera tripod and used this rather than the little Buddistick tripod. It was much more stable and the antenna stayed upright.

Here are the things I needed to carry from the car to the operating spot. Its lucky that it was just a 5 minute walk. The Buddistick, a flask of tea and some snacks are in the rucksack along with my 2 metre handie and the MFJ ATU.

I also gave in and took an ATU with me, which made things a lot easier as the Buddistick can be difficult to tune. Here is my Portable shack.

I had a few HF contacts, one on 40 metres, a couple on 20, although there was a contest on and two on 17 metres, a nice band which I should use more. Although the Buddistick is designed to operate on 40 metres, results are rather disappointing although if you consider the size of the antenna perhaps this is not surprising.A better option would perhaps be a dipole or doublet supported by a fibreglass pole for the lower bands. I may make such an antenna up, but no doubt if I do I won't get a chance to do any more portable ops this year! The only problem with such a setup would be finding a way to support the pole when there are no trees or fences nearby.

2 metres was very quiet from this location today. Surprising as it was the weekend and a really good VHF location. In the 1990s when I used to operate from this spot you could spent all day on 2 metres FM, no longer, even the repeaters were quiet-is this a sign of the times?

And finally here is the view from the operating spot. I could keep an eye on my car from here (the one on the left) although this is a quiet location.

Beefing up the Buddistick

A fine afternoon after work and the fact that the YL was working late gave me the opportunity to play around with the Buddistick .
Firstly I attached it to my old camera tripod which is bigger and heavier than the tripod that came with the Buddistick. It would be much less likely to blow over than the standard tripod but will be heavier to carry!

Then I cut some quarter wavelength radials, one each for 40 metres, 20 metres and 10 metres, I also added one for 6 but again I could not get the antenna to tune anywhere near 6 metres.

The antenna does now tune more easily on 40, 20 and 10 metres but it is still quite a difficult process to get it just right. I may have to resort to an ATU just to get the SWR down a little more easily.

One thing I have learnt is that the built in SWR meter on the IC706 transceiver is useless. It was indicating a 1.5:1 SWR when two external meters both agreed on 3:1. I just hope the SWR protection circuitry is better than the meter!
And here I am in the garden, with My 706 and the obligatory mug of tea!. Since the camera tripod was supporting the antenna I was using the Buddystick tripod for the camera. It seemed to work!

Out in the open

Today I had a day off work and since the weather was good I decided to pack up a rig and antenna, a flask and some sandwiches and go portable!
I drove to Bwllch-y-Clawdd, a high spot  about 30 minutes drive from where I live. This location overlooks the Rhondda Valley  and the views are pretty amazing from here.


I set up the Icom 706 and  Buddistick antenna, powered from my portable 20ah battery (weighs around 705Kgs!) and I was ready to go. This is a very peaceful location, for the three hours or so I was there I saw no-one else. I have operated VHF previously  from this location and know that its a good site. However I had not tried HF before and I wondered if with my limited small vertical antenna I would be able to work anything. I was able to vary my output power but for the most part I was running around 30 watts.
Initial attempts were not too promising with just a marginal QSO with a mobile station on the Isle of Man on 40 metres SSB.
Switching to 10 metres I had a little more success working into Germany and Italy, one of the Italian stations was running only 900 milliwatts!


6 Metres was also open, but try as I might I could not get my antenna to a good match on 6 metres although it is supposed to work on that band.

All in all an enjoyable few hours using the radio in the fresh air. A couple of learning points too.
1) The Buddistick on its little tripod is prone to blow over in a strong breeze, I need to look into a way of weighting or anchoring the tripod better.
2) The Buddistick whilst a clever antenna can be VERY tricky to tune. I have read that the radial length is important but varying the radial length didn't seem to make much diffeence for me.
3) I could not tune the antenna on 6 metres at all. I need to look into this as I like to operate 6 when the band is open.


I do have a small MFJ ATU which I could take with me but I would like to get the antenna to match as closely as I can without an ATU, after all its just more weight in my rucksack!!

Practising for Portable

Here is the latest addition to my shack. Well its not actually for the shack. this is the rig that I intend to fit into my car so I can go HF mobile. Its an Icom 706Mk1. Quite an elderly set now but it works well. I have had it running here in the shack and strangely enough it seems more sensitive on 145Mhz than the Yaesu FT857 which I normally use. This is odd as I believe the early 706 had a reputation for being deaf on this band.

I revisited an old friend today in the form of the "Buddistick"  USA made portable HF antenna. I purchased the antenna a few years back, it is very well made and can be put up from scratch in a matter of minutes. It can cover from 40 metres up to 2 metres.I haven't had the time to do any portable operation for a while but am hoping to do so this year so I thought I had better familiarise myself again with this excellent antenna.

Here it is in its carrying bag.

And here it is fully erected in the garden

Since the Icom 706 was doing nothing better at the moment I set it up in the garden with the Buddistick and monitored 20 metres in the sun!