The Portable Antenna

I am starting this to present my experiences in using portable HF antennas. Portable antennas became an issue after I had started working on learning Morse code or CW. While I had passed the 5 WPM test to upgrade my FCC license, I never used CW and eventually wound up doing mostly digital and sound card HF radio work. I finally got proficient enough to get on the air and started making CW contacts and was amazed at how much fun I was having.

This lead to my acquiring an Elecraft K1 from a local Silent Key's estate. This radio probably deserves it's own blog it has so many features in such a small space. The portability of this radio led me to look into portable HF operating. My home station has a center fed zepp and an S9 vertical. I can cover 80Meters thru 6 Meters with these. Being able to set a station in a park or take my HF station on vacation was just too much of an opportunity to resist.