Question about Ham Radio

screwdriver would make sense , i only run 10 meter mobile and hf at the house on a dipole, so i wouldnt know as much as others but the screwdriver seems to be a winner in most cases. 73!

 

LOTS of hams use them and they do work well ........

I use HAMSTICKS and they also work well you just have to change them when you change bands.

 

The hamsticks work FINE above 40 Meters. Below that? They STINK! Why? It's all about "coils and windings". The FEWER coils and windings there are in an antenna, the BETTER an antenna will work for a given band. Hamsticks have TINY windings on a very small, skinny form--mostly like the windings of a TRANSFORMER. The closer wound they are, the tinier the wire, the more "sloppy" a radiatior it becomes. The BEST CB antenna is actually a 102" whip! REALLY! The reason for having coils in an antenna is NOT to make it "badder" or better, but because we can't fit a full-sized 27 MHZ antenna on a truck (which we are mostly concerned with here). SO, that also means that for 40 and 75 meters, the LOWER in frequency you go, the MORE antenna it takes, the more "coil" it takes to "scrunch" it down to fit. The result is, you lose some of your efficiency. The MORAL of the story is, IT TAKES A BIG, UGLY, HONKIN' ANTENNA TO WORK 3.8 mhz! So WHATCHA gonna do? If you are going to work 75 Meters (or even 40) it will take some sort of "coil" antenna to do it. You will, of course, have to compromise a bit of the signal to work that, but you CAN get some pretty decent signals out there in the ether with the RIGHT mobile antenna. In the ham antenna "shootouts" (Yes, hams have "shootouts" but it is not for the same thing: It is for TESTING the best antennas for the job.), The screwdriver will almost always come out on top, with the Texas Bugcatcher having a slight edge in STATIONARY tests, the Outbacker would be next, with the hamsticks DEAD LAST! Remember, we talked about skinny little windings on a leetle bitty form? Well the screwdriver has (in its various configurations) a LARGER coil form with more SPACING between turns of the coil which makes for High "Q" (which is another measure of efficiency), and a much LARGER coil FORM. ALL of which make for a nice BIG signal down on the low bands, and, set up right, a screwdriver will simply BLOW away anything else on the LOWER bands! Above 40 Meters, the difference starts to become less and less until you can just use a whip on 10, 11, & 12 Meters and get the same results. At 10 Meters, the coil is now down INSIDE the mast anyway so it may perform roughly the same as the whip. But there's another advantage of the screwdriver we've not considered and it is a HUGE advantage over the Bugcatcher! You see, when you set a Bugcatcher (or even an OUTBACKER) to frequency using the little coil clips or plugs, you are now FIXED on THAT one frequency. A highly-efficient HF mobile antenna is also ADVERSELY AFFECTED by its surroundings. When it is set to a low SWR at ONE place, you can move to another spot and have the SWR thru the ROOF! That's because buildings, other trucks, cars, water towers, even CELL towers can affect your resonance to a greater or lesser degree depending on where you are at a given moment. A mobile antenna must, by its very design and purpose, move thru a fluid, ever-changing environment. One second the antenna is working fine, the next, the SWR is out the wazoo, your signal is in the tank, and you just LOST that good contact in Lower Slovenia! The great thing about the screwdriver is, when you notice the performance of the thing has fallen on its face, you can simply bump the motor switch and be right back in tune scarcely noticing the difference. With the auto-positioners available nowadays, the system will detect an SWR anomoly, and automatically correct it without YOU having to do anything. The other thing is, the screwdriver is NOT some sort of a "tuner" or a compromise, but something the OTHER multi-band antennas CAN'T be! It IS also a RESONANT, TUNED antenna for EACH AND EVERY HF FREQUENCY you use! It's like having 100 antennas on your truck, each one SET for your desired frequency at the touch of a switch! IOW, it is ALWAY "tuned to the frequency you want" simply by hitting the switch! The result is, OVER ALL, the screwdriver has the best signal and performance in the long haul! You will SELDOM ever be "lost" again in the soup!
Those are the differences in HF mobile antennas and you have to choose what you are able to do with the space available, and what you can afford as screwdrivers can run upwards of $500 apiece! They DO do the job tho.

CWM

 

Sorry but I drive a COROLLA and there is no room for a 80 meter antenna .....
I use them on 20, 17, 15 and 10 meters.

 

LOL! hey i have seen some of the biggest bulky antenna set ups on some of the smallest cars, but gf makes a great point, )although it is written in NOVEL form, just messin there gf) the screwdriver is self tuning and you dont have to get out and change the jumper ot the antenna its self, its better so that you arent stuck on a band that is other wise dead! I have no major need for hf in the pick up at the time but when the time comes i am going with the screwdriver, the price will be a little tough to swallow but its top notch! 73!

 

IF I could justify spending the money I would have a screwdriver antenn too. I run 99% of my time on 10 or 2 from the car and use a DX-CC dipole at the house to cover 75 meters ... it is 85 foot long.

Now one of my brothers runs a HAMSTICK on 75 meters on a small Chevy .... This brother used in 1973 to have a 5DB gain Husler 2 meter coliner antenna roof mounted on his 73 VW square back ...... He went into a underground bank drivethrough here in St. Petersburg and took out a number of the over head lights......

Yes he is still crazy ....... and the last part of his call is BAD fits him to a tee .....

 

lol, i used to run a 102in whip for cb in highschool on my pick up on the rollbar, i smacked many stop liights, i took it off after getting in a bit of trouble with the cops, i dont run that big of an antenna anymore!

 

Did you break any lights?

 

Hey we could hold a contest ........

The most broken lights with a roof mounted A-99

 

yeah, shameful to say i did some damage with that thing, going thru a drive thru, forget it i got banned from mc donalds drive thru, and the drive thru at the bank for breaking stuff, after the cop and the stop light incident it was time to bid farewell to the 102in whip and get a fire stick it was only 3 feet tall and mounted lower then the whip just for the sake of not getting pulled over again!