I have run both the outbacker and Large Shakespeare whip on 20 meters
marine.

The outbacker was a test as a backup on a boat with a back stay antenna .

Neither antenna is in the same class as a backstay. The outbacker was
better than the whip...though the boat with the whip may well have had
ground problems.

Switching the outbacker and the backstay you could here the stations vanish.
It was still possible to work the states from off Baja but you needed
somebody on the state end with real good equipment.

After playing controller on Pac Sea Net for a few years the boats that get
out well almost exclusively have backstay antennas.

Jim Donohue

"John Proctor" wrote in message
news:2005032420245216807%lost@nowhereorg...
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