After installing a 2:1 unun to more effectively feed 25 ohm (ish) antennas, I’ve been having fun seeing what resonates on the Ford. Here’s my latest experiment – pieced together Bug Catcher clone!
I have had several hamsticks that i’ve chopped up over the past few months (mainly 12m ones that didn’t really give me much joy), so I had a 3.5 foot ‘straight’ (unloaded) mast that I topped with my MFJ Big Stick’s tapped loading coil and a stock stinger from a hamstick. Turns out – it resonates and very well on 12 through 30 meters! SWR on all bands is adjustable to < 1.3:1, and I was amazed to see that the 2:1 swr bandwidth on 20m was well over 300 khz – you can really tell that larger coil’s benefit as far as efficiency goes.
Now to order a straight Hustler mast and a spare coil, so I can have a more stable setup, and I don’t have to cannibalize the coil off the portable QRP setup.
