On 2005-03-24 15:09:27 +1100, Larry W4CSC said:

jeannette wrote in
:

That's one of the reason I like the Outbacker. Besides it's made in
Oz...

Jeannette


I've never been impressed by the Outbackers, nothing but hookup wire
wrapped around a fiberglass rod with plastic taps in the continuously
loaded coil whip. It's too short for a good radiation pattern below 20
meters with way too much loading and you can't put any real RF power to
it which will destroy the hookup wire it's made of. "Homebrew" comes
to mind under the shrink wrap exterior.

Some have commented they didn't like having to go out to change the
taps. I'm curious how they keep the salt out of the little holes from
corroding it all up.

The longest screwdriver antennas would make a MUCH more efficient HF
tunable antenna for all the bands as they have continuous coverage if
we could figure out how to keep from drowning their coils in
seawater....

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1...90cf2ed1290b68
d5d1d

http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/ra...crewdriver.htm

http://www.dxengineering.com/Product...cID=8&DeptID=2

http://www.n2vz.com/
automatic control of screwdriver antennas....autotuner!

http://www.kj7u.com/
KJ7U's screwdriver with the rubber boot looks very promising for marine use....

http://www.wb0w.com/tarheel/tarheel.htm
Tarheel says theirs is for marine use.

The key to all these antennas is they use a LARGE, EFFICIENT,
center-loaded coil with a continuous tap that allows you, or an
autotuner, to put the tuning of this antenna EXACTLY on your frequency,
not "close enough" like an outbacker. ANY frequency as the coil is
continously tuned, not banded.

The idea of tuning by remote control, from the nav station for
instance, is much nicer than having to go out to the outbacker in the
weather on the stern to fool around with that stupid tap.....

The longer the whip on top of it...the better because it reduces the
amount of loading coil necessary to tune it.....

Don't knock it til you try it! I would agree that the taps present a
problem in the maritime environment (possibly) but many hams down under
use the outbacker and swear by them. So unless you have first hand
experience using them your feelings count for nothing! Too many people
make judgements about products without trying them! No first hand
experience value of opinion = 0!

--
Regards,
John Proctor VK3JP, VKV6789
S/V Chagall