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Piggot’s Bottom, approximately 52° 42′ 56″ north, 1° 54′ 7″ west. Locator square IO92BR. This is where I setup the Buddistick for a bit of 17m operating. Just don’t ask me to find it again!
Let me explain. I set out to operate from a spot I’ve used before not far from home. The problem was that today those playing fields were in use and the small carpark was full. This meant I had to find another spot to operate from.
I set off with no particular destination in mind and after driving around for some 20 minutes I found myself at Piggot’s Bottom, a small wood about 6 or 7 miles northwest of Lichfield. I found the spot entirely by chance and will have to pore over a map in order to ever find it again. |
As you can see from the pictures of todays outing (see my Portable Amateur Radio gallery) the spot I chose is in a lovely little clearing set into a corner of the wood. Using the supplied Buddistick mount plus the vertical antenna clamp in my ‘Deluxe’ package I attached the antenna to the rear hatch on the car (see picture on this page and linked gallery page). This placed the feedpoint about 6ft above the ground. The elevated radial wire was taken away horizontally and tied-off to a convenient tree. This tuned up great on 17m with SWR < 1.2:1 across the SSB portion of the band.
Conditions weren’t great on 17m today but there was decent propagation down into the Mediterranean region with SV9CVY (Mike on the island of Crete) loud at 59+ runnning a good pile-up of mostly EU stations with a few US stations. I eventually got through the pile and got a good 59 report. I was pleased to make the contact because he did seem to have lots of loud stations calling him and it took a bit of persistence and some guile to get the contact.
I also got good reports from 9H1DE (Roly in Malta who was 59 with me) who gave me 58, 9A0CI (Fred on EU-090) who gave me 58, 1B1AB (Soyer in Turkish North Cyprus) who gave me 59 and Flavio & Marco (IW0HKH and IW0GEQ), both in Rome who gave me 55 and 57 respectively.
The catch of the day though was HV0A (Francesco) in the Vatican City. I was tuning across the band as he was calling CQ (59+) and I got him on the second call. It wasn’t too long before he was buried under a huge pile-up as more and more stations all tried for a contact, by which time I was smiling broadly with him already in my log. This was my second contact with HV0A having previously also working him on 20m SSB for what was at that time my 100th country. The QSL card for that contact is on the QSL Europe gallery page.
It was an enjoyable few hours on 17m and another good performance from the Buddistick antenna which continues to impress. I will certainly find my way back to Piggot’s Bottom to operate from there again.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures antenna, Buddistick, G0RIF, HV0A, portable, propagation, QSL, vertical
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Despite the predictions for a damp miserable Saturday, the sun was shining so I decided it was time to get out with the Buddistick to see how it performed.
I’d read many reports about setting up the various Buddipole antennas - most of which suggested it was pretty straightforward but some of which suggested it could be a bit fiddly. With that in mind I’d conducted a brief indoor test to see how easily the coil tap and counterpoise length combinations for 17m and 20m could be arrived at. This had shown that a nice low SWR could be achieved within a few minutes for each of these bands - so far so good and it seemed pretty straighforward but how would it perform ‘in the field’?
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Buddistick /P
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With limited time available I didn’t want to travel too far from home so I headed north out of Lichfield, climbing to high ground with a good take-off in pretty much all directions. It was here that I setup the Buddistick for an on-air test at a spot just off the A515 close to the intersection with the A51, in locator square IO92BQ. The picture shows the spot pretty well and also shows just how wrong the forecasters were - rain indeed!
I chose 17m as the band to try first because it tends to be less crowded than 20m. I had a coil tap in place for the band so it was just a matter of stringing out the counterpoise wire for low SWR and off we go. Or so I thought. I soon learned that there is a significant difference between deploying the counterpoise indoors on the top floor of a house (i.e. relatively far from the ground) versus deploying within a few feet of terra firma. Indoors was easy - outdoors took a little longer. Note to self - devise a simple kite winder support to allow more precise counterpoise deployment rather than relying on surrounding bushes!
Despite the differences between indoor & outdoor setup I was soon tuning around 17m and I have to say that the antenna seems pretty lively on receive. The band was alive with Asian stations (this around 14:00 UTC) - China, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong and India were all heard 55 or better. I put out a few calls but all of these stations were running significant pile-ups so I wasn’t able to make a QSO but Rafi (4X4FR) who always has a great signal gave me a 58 report from Tel Aviv which was encouraging (I was running 50w SSB).
Turning to 20m (which was very busy on this afternoon) and a quick change to the setup, with the same observations re indoor/outdoor and ground effect, I again found the Buddistick to be very lively on receive. On transmit I got a 53 report from Rocco (VE3YJ) near Toronto and a 59 report from CS0RCL/P - these were 59+ and 56 respectively with me.
These brief tests were conducted with the Buddistick antenna mounted on top of a camera tripod with the feed point about 4ft above the ground and the counterpoise wire running away horizontally averaging 2-3ft elevation over adjacent bushes. Encouraging results for the first time out I think and I am certainly looking forward to using the antenna a lot more over the summer.
You can view the pictures of this antenna and other portable operations on the Portable Amateur Radio gallery page.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures antenna, Buddistick, portable, vertical
The ‘Buddistick’
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Antennas make all the difference. To that end I have recently invested in a number of new antennas for portable operation - a Buddistick vertical for HF + 6m and a SOTA 2m/70cm beam for well, 2m and 70cm. I’ll write more about the SOTA beam later - this post is going to concentrate on the Buddistick.
The Buddistick is a shortened vertical antenna with a loading coil and mount. It breaks down into small pieces for easy travel and a nice zippered bag is available (which I have) that can be stuffed with antenna parts, radials, mount, and a 25-foot run of coax - together this little package weighs in at under 4 pounds. This make for a real ‘go anywhere’ HF antenna that takes up very little space in the car and that can easily
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be carried in hand luggage when flying (making it an ideal holiday antenna). I’ll be reporting back soon with the results of my first on air experience - I hope to make another trip to the Barr Beacon in the next week or so.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, Buddistick, portable, vertical