Larry W4CSC wrote:

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.


Short feeler to mine, Chuukker. That and a short counterpoise. Trail
an insulated wire in a hose for a "ground". Nichrome toaster wire
could take more heat, huh? It also unloads your Tx automatically if
the ae is too short.

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.


Beeswax, Billy. Lots of beeswax. Dunk the whole thing twice. A hot
iron will work as a screwdriver right through it.



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....

Beeswax, I say!

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

stump


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.....

Why is that? Why not change the tap in the cabin? The wire from the
autotuner is part of the radiating element array. The other end, the
floating counterpoise, could go through the side and trail behind.

One might think the forestay a better choise for an antenna element.


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


In radio, as with hot rods, there is no substitute for linear
inches, displaced cubewise.

Changing the length of the trailed element will do some of the same,
could go auto with an electrolux type reel retractor and a sliding
contact, or a fish tape and a roller drive contactor / retractor wheel.

The sliding contacts are weak spots in all autotuners, especially if
you need a kilowatt to do your toeast. (Sorry, I found it innocent,
and I'm not changing it. -tk) A directional rig and polar chart can
do the job a lot cheaper, and is easier to fix. Besides, you got one
already, can't get rid of it, might as well learn to drive it. Turn
the boat to pass your traffic. A mechanical adjustment crank and
turns counter could keep a channel open if the auto tuner servo
should conk out. A reference table, previously tabulated, will
enable continued radio service at distant ranges and directions.

Why don't GPSs provide a wordwide notices text channel? You could
set a contact code to capture the text that's intended for "An
english sailboat" channel. Kinda like one half of a newsgroup service.

Terry K