My Buddipole antenna review
Here you are a recent picture of one of my laster Buddipole experiences ! Well, I’ve played with this antenna one month, and overall impressions, is really positive. I’ve been able to compare this antenna to my old 3 bands dipole antenna.
First of all, one of the main reason I’ve bought this antenna is the “portability”, even if I’ve choosen the deluxe edition that includes the tripod.
Since my current antenna restrictions does not permit me to have a real antenna on the roof, the portable operations are my current only way to be active on ham radio bands.. (except few sporadic digital activities from home, using this antenna on the balcony).
Well, about gain, you cannot ask much to a portable antenna, what I can tell you is that signal reports received compared to the dipole, 7 meters above the ground, were really comparable in 15-17-20 meters.
Tuning this antenna is very easy in all bands till 20 meters, for lower bands, gain and tuning is really problematic. In 40 meters in example, I’ve never been able to go lower than 3:1 swr. I know that on lower bands is recommended very free space, and some particular procedurres, but really have not had much time to investigate yet on this.
I’ve noticed also that SWR change with the rotation of the dipole, and with the height of the mast. It often increase.
Manufacture of the antenna is good, also accessories, are well done. I’ve just experienced a problem with a pole connector, since the very first day, I will keep in touch with Bud to have some info. The Bag is usefull to carry on everything including the tripod, thta is the biggest thing inside. All the antenna bag, once full, is not heavy at all.
As backup antenna and for excercise I will try to build a home made buddipole antenna, with pvc tubes, maybe a dedicated version for 30 meters band, for my PSK31 nights from the apartment. More info to come.
Somebuddipole antenna related links can be found here, including a modified version that use wires instead of whips.
[tags] hamradio, antenna, ham radio, dx, amateur radio[/tags]
Hi your buddipole looks great! i will be interested in your homebrew version when you get it up and running.Hope to meet you on Air sometime.chow 73 good DX
ks7j,
Can anyone give me a spec. sheet on how to make the modified buddipole?
John,ko6ef
John you can find some link to buddipole modifications and portable antennas ideas here
http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Antennas/Portable/
Hi ,
Great antenna ! Its fun to tune it though at 40 meters I also could not tune better than 2:1 swr . Am using it for last 15 days only . However , last night I didn’t adjust (spread / opened) the tripod properly and found my antenna fallen down with one whip broken in 2 pcs and the other one bent !! 73 , Rajeshree , VU2LAW
Verg good info on your website and so nicely designed with your kind permission I would like to link your webpage on my website………..God bless u……..73
On 40 metres, the bandwidth will be very narrow. I don’t know much about the buddipole, except that it’s just an inductively loaded centre-fed dipole. Dipoles work best >= a half-wavelength above ground. I guess the buddipole has a movable tap on the loading coils, and positioning will be very critical. Even half a turn either way will probably put the antenna out of resonance. Likewise the extendable end parts, a few mm either way, and you get a mismatch. It should be possible to get a reasonable SWR though. On 40 metres, this antenna used horizontally would need to be much higher to raise the feedpoint impedance to around 50/75 ohm.
One-half of this antenna fed against a good ground should work reasonably well as a vertical. You’d get a much lower radiation angle for DX this way.
Hi
My Buddipole Deluxe coils does not premarked colored on the taps… could you send me photos with details of points to the premarked for 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters?
At the 2m band only a whip for each side is sufficient to operate?
Sorry my english is very poor but I would like to thank you very much for any help.
73/51 from PU7AIK Crezivando JUNIOR from Maceio Alagoas BRAZIL