On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:43:43 -0600, Chauney Baker
wrote:

Hey there all! I have scoured the net loking for a cheap , portable, and
decent antenna for 6 meters but have been unable to find such a
creature. The primary freq intrest is 50-50.3 for a little CW/SSB work.
I ride by bike often in the park and am looking for something that I can
string up in a tree fairly easily that doesn't require a whole lot of
tuning. any help or plans anyone could provide would be greatly
appreciated.


TIA
KD5JBK
Chauncey Baker
EM 15

Chauncey,
Considering you're requirements I'd think that narrows the field to a
wire dipole with RG-8X coax. That would be light and easy to string
up with some monofilament fishing line and a couple of sinkers to
sling over the branches. When I've worked portable (driving to the
location) I used to use a Halo, but that required carrying a tripod
mount and a few masts - could take the pleasure out of bike riding.
On my last trip operating portable I went with the dipole and it
performed just fine, in fact I was able to get it up notable higher
than with the 10' of mast I normally use. As for a cheap alternative
- you simple can't beat it. I guess if you got fancy you could make a
wire beam - but it would be challenging to maintain the proper
geomoetry for the elements in relation to each other.

Howard