On Jun 25, 6:31 pm, "Jimmie D" wrote:


Seems like I have seen a lot of Ham STIKS lately that were use to construct
homebrew antennas.

Jimmie

They are good for tinkering with, and they are cheap.
A hamstick on it's own can be a real good antenna as is
if you modify it to work on a lower band by adding a longer
stinger.
Some brands vary though. Some have semi decent length
stingers from the factory, and some are real short, or have
no stinger. Those are the worst.
The one in the picture was a 6 ft 20 meter stick which
had no real stinger on it. It was pretty lame on it's designed
band. But I added a 5 ft stinger and used it for 40m.
Worked quite well on the trunk of my car. Almost bugcatcher
level performance with no large lumped coil.
So if one were to want to use a hamstick for a mobile,
they are better off to buy one for a higher band, and
then clamp various stingers to work the lower bands.
It will be more efficient than the sticks actually sold
for those lower bands. IE: my original antenna which
John Smith seems to think I've made up in my mind,
was a CB antenna originally. A firestick I think..
I got it free too.. I've never spent a dime on any of
my mobile antennas... Well, except for wire
in some cases.
I added the coil to work 80 and 40. But on 20-10,
I just used various lengths of stinger, and the coil
was bypassed with a jumper. That antenna on 20m,
is better than most that are sold for 20m.. :/
More stinger, and less windings.. Also the methods
of windings can effect current distribution. The better
versions wind more coil up high, as to resemble a
lumped coil in that location.
This improves current distribution same as it would
with a normal lumped coil..
Many of the sticks have a winding at the base just
for matching. But the matching portion can be
included with the main lumped coil too. It doesn't
have to be at the base. But my latest version has
no helical windings. Just the large coil. It's pretty
much purely a "plastic bugcatcher"..
MK