"Neil Gibson" wrote in message ...
I have a Hustler amateur mobile antenna model RM-80 for 80 Meter 25-30 KHz.
Although it was designed as a mobile I want to use it as a portable,

You may think you do, but you really don't.. Well, maybe if you like
radio torture sessions where 100w out works like 5w... Only if you
were at the beach on salt water, or had 60 or more radials under it
for a normal ground mount, would I give it an estimate of doing a half
decent job.

can
anybody tell me the length of the counterpoise needed for this model? or can
I just use an earth wire

As noted, a 1/4 wave is appx 60 ft, but one radial is nearly useless
at reducing ground losses on a ground mount vertical. And being the
vertical is short, and fairly inefficient, the need of a *good* radial
or ground system is extra critical.
On a car, you just take the ground losses and deal with them, as there
is no real choice. But the hustler antenna in itself, is not the best
in the west. The coil is fairly lossy. But on the other hand, with one
radial, ground losses would likely overshadow coil losses, and it
wouldn't matter. :/ What is "portable" going to be? When I run
portable, I just string up a quicky dipole, or use my mobile antenna
thats on the truck. But my mobile antenna is a good bit better than
the hustler...Less coil loss. It's a fairly usable system even on 80m.
But I string a dipole in some trees if I want a *real* signal. I also
have two of those "drive on" mast holders that you park a wheel on. So
I can actually put up masts quite easily portable if no trees are
around.
I use those cheap 10 ft fence rail sections as mast. Two gives 20 ft,
and can be put up easily by one person. Three is too top heavy unless
you use extra guying precautions..I've tried lifting three together
once, 30 ft" and it was kind hairy...So I just stick with 20 ft
worth. It's good enough for the average NVIS stuff I usually work on
80m. MK