Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:
Yep... The only way to get a helical wound stick to really
work well is to have a decent length stinger on it.
One thing stands out loud and clear from the 75m
mobile shootout results. The longer the straight
high current bottom section under the loading coil,
the greater the radiated signal. The best 75m
mobile antennas that I have ever seen were not
center-loaded. They were top loaded.
How well do they travel, Cecil? It's an experience with a capacitance
hat at the top, I have to imagine a loading coil up there would be
trying to turn the whole thing into a horizontal antenna.
One was my entry which was a CB whip with a
horizontal top loading coil and capacity hat at
the top which equaled the top-rated bugcatchers
and screwdrivers and bested all the others.
The other was a 10 foot long, 2 inch diameter
copper pipe with a loading coil and top hat
on top out in El Paso. I forget who entered it.
That kind of answers my question for one way to support the coil on top.
A big honkin' support. Did these folks travel with their antennas up? At
least here in the PA mountains, the trees and a lot of the bridges don't
put up with much antenna on top of the car.
My VHF/UHF antenna scores a few trees, and I ended up putting a string
and loop on my Bugcatcher to pull the stinger down, and it still hits
the occasional object.