WA3CSX
Member
I just got a buddistick,first antenna I have ever bought.One question though,for coil tap,am I just suppose to screw the tap in or am I suppose to drill a hole of some kind?
buddistick
- Thread starter WA3CSX
- Start date
- Status
Hopefully someone who owns one can answer better that I can, but drilling sounds like a really bad idea. The documentation is available on-line. Its not entirely clear to me since I don't have the coil in front of me, but there is no mention of using a drill.
N0VGL
Member
I'm not absolutely sure what you're referring to, but I understood that on that type of antenna, you tune it by moving the tap up and down the coil for highest resonance as evidenced by how loud the hash is on the freq. you want to transmit on. Isn't there a clip of some type on the tap that clips to the coil?
WA3CSX
Member
ok folks in radioland upon further inspection,figured it out,operator error LOL.Thanks for the replies tho.
1. I am glad you did not drill any holes.
2. Extend the whip out to what it should be for the band you are going to work then slowly rake the red clip over the coils up and down. Clip it to the one you hear with the most noise.
3. Ensure you use the counterpoise wire measured out to the proper distance for the band you're working and keep it above ground.
4. Ensure you have an RF choke of some kind on the coax near the connector that attaches to the antenna base/mount thing. If not, pick up six mix 31 clip on ferrite cores and put them on the coax near the antenna. There are other ways to accomplish a 1:1 RF choke too.
The antenna is critical to the system. Consider this, I have pushed 100 watts out of a Buddipole, but had a better experience with a 5 watt Yaesu 817 using a Mosley 3 element yagi 20' in the air.
2. Extend the whip out to what it should be for the band you are going to work then slowly rake the red clip over the coils up and down. Clip it to the one you hear with the most noise.
3. Ensure you use the counterpoise wire measured out to the proper distance for the band you're working and keep it above ground.
4. Ensure you have an RF choke of some kind on the coax near the connector that attaches to the antenna base/mount thing. If not, pick up six mix 31 clip on ferrite cores and put them on the coax near the antenna. There are other ways to accomplish a 1:1 RF choke too.
The antenna is critical to the system. Consider this, I have pushed 100 watts out of a Buddipole, but had a better experience with a 5 watt Yaesu 817 using a Mosley 3 element yagi 20' in the air.
Have done 5 watts with my FT-817ND and a Buddistick too. Antenna works pretty well. I had to add some choke coils, spare metal alligator clip and eventually bought an auto tuner for the Yaesu radio. I still use the antenna though. Works well and has its own fitted case. Great package for camp sites.
The Buddistick with one counterpoise wire is essentially an inverted V dipole on its side and it will work better with the counterpoise wire as high as you can get it since it radiates as much as the whip and coil. I see some people placing the single counterpoise wire on the ground and thats the same as laying half your dipole on the ground.
Another thing to consider is if the single counterpoise wire is not 1/4 wave resonant then your coax will really light up with RF and radiate since it becomes part of the antenna system. If you add two or more equal length counterpoise wires (radials) it will then radiate mostly from the whip and coil in a more omni directonal pattern.
I'll be using a 40m and 80m Buddipole coil on a travel trailer over the next few days but I'm using a 5ft Hustler fold over mast below the coil and a 9ft military segmented whip on top. It works surprisingly well for fixed mobile use but its about 15ft tall and much bigger than most mobile HF whips and it has a large trailer frame as a counterpoise plus I augment that with a bunch of radials.
prcguy
Another thing to consider is if the single counterpoise wire is not 1/4 wave resonant then your coax will really light up with RF and radiate since it becomes part of the antenna system. If you add two or more equal length counterpoise wires (radials) it will then radiate mostly from the whip and coil in a more omni directonal pattern.
I'll be using a 40m and 80m Buddipole coil on a travel trailer over the next few days but I'm using a 5ft Hustler fold over mast below the coil and a 9ft military segmented whip on top. It works surprisingly well for fixed mobile use but its about 15ft tall and much bigger than most mobile HF whips and it has a large trailer frame as a counterpoise plus I augment that with a bunch of radials.
prcguy
Back from my travel trailer excursion and playing on HF with the Buddipole coils with a longer mast and whip than is supplied with the Buddipole. Conclusion, I'm tired of the Buddipole coil clips and the hassles of moving them around and not being able to do what I want.
The 80m coil is fairly narrow band on 80m and I wanted to put several coil taps in to cover the entire band by just moving the shorting lead around but the sweet spot for some of the taps was one winding above or below an existing tap and there is not enough physical room to fit one clip above the other. I tried going to another slot 1/4 turn either way from the existing tap (Buddipole users will know what I'm talking about) but the match was not as good as the spot that I couldn't fit another clip into.
Then I ran into an intermittent problem where the resonant spot of all the coil taps moved up a few MHz and I found the coil clips can short out some of the coil when the coil wire gets stretched from over tightening the plastic clip nuts. This was a problem on the 80m coil but not the 40m coil. I might keep the 40m Buddipole coil but the 80m version is going away and the sooner the better.
I recently traded off another brand of tapped coil that worked perfectly, tuned any frequency between 80m and 10m with an appropriate whip and had permanent banana type sockets for quickly moving the tap wires around and no stupid clips to piss me off.
I just finished buying another coil identical to the one I just traded off because its the best all band HF coil I've found for use with Hustler masts and various whips from 6 to 9ft and I should have kept the first one. My new coil of choice is made by Great Lakes Antennas and is available here: 392M HF Mobile Antenna Coil All Band Ham Marine Mars Cap Military 80 10 Meters | eBay The seller will take less $$ than the posted price and you can haggle with him.
Most of my use for this type antenna is fixed mobile where I assemble a fairly tall antenna around 15-16ft for use on a travel trailer or with a mag mount on vehicles that do not have any mounts available. On 40 and 80m the Great Lakes coil with 5ft Hustler mast and 9ft whip on top slightly outperforms my big Tarheel 100HP screwdriver and with all the taps available it has fine enough steps to tune any frequency above around 3.5MHz and the top end depends on the mast and whip length.
I was concerned at first about not having fine enough steps in the taps to cover any HF frequency as the ad claimed and I told the seller the coil would be returned if it didn't perform as advertised. The seller did his homework and nailed the coil tap points, it really will tune any freq anywhere as advertised. One caveat is you need to map out the taps for the frequencies you want with an antenna analyzer and write them down so you can quickly change bands on the fly without needing an antenna analyzer again.
The guys at Buddipole make a great product and probably the highest quality of the packaged portable antennas, but for a Buddistick style antenna the Great Lakes coil with mast and whip is a much better and easier to use antenna. I have no connection to Great Lakes Antennas except I'm a happy customer, and I'm not easy to please in the antenna department.
prcguy
The 80m coil is fairly narrow band on 80m and I wanted to put several coil taps in to cover the entire band by just moving the shorting lead around but the sweet spot for some of the taps was one winding above or below an existing tap and there is not enough physical room to fit one clip above the other. I tried going to another slot 1/4 turn either way from the existing tap (Buddipole users will know what I'm talking about) but the match was not as good as the spot that I couldn't fit another clip into.
Then I ran into an intermittent problem where the resonant spot of all the coil taps moved up a few MHz and I found the coil clips can short out some of the coil when the coil wire gets stretched from over tightening the plastic clip nuts. This was a problem on the 80m coil but not the 40m coil. I might keep the 40m Buddipole coil but the 80m version is going away and the sooner the better.
I recently traded off another brand of tapped coil that worked perfectly, tuned any frequency between 80m and 10m with an appropriate whip and had permanent banana type sockets for quickly moving the tap wires around and no stupid clips to piss me off.
I just finished buying another coil identical to the one I just traded off because its the best all band HF coil I've found for use with Hustler masts and various whips from 6 to 9ft and I should have kept the first one. My new coil of choice is made by Great Lakes Antennas and is available here: 392M HF Mobile Antenna Coil All Band Ham Marine Mars Cap Military 80 10 Meters | eBay The seller will take less $$ than the posted price and you can haggle with him.
Most of my use for this type antenna is fixed mobile where I assemble a fairly tall antenna around 15-16ft for use on a travel trailer or with a mag mount on vehicles that do not have any mounts available. On 40 and 80m the Great Lakes coil with 5ft Hustler mast and 9ft whip on top slightly outperforms my big Tarheel 100HP screwdriver and with all the taps available it has fine enough steps to tune any frequency above around 3.5MHz and the top end depends on the mast and whip length.
I was concerned at first about not having fine enough steps in the taps to cover any HF frequency as the ad claimed and I told the seller the coil would be returned if it didn't perform as advertised. The seller did his homework and nailed the coil tap points, it really will tune any freq anywhere as advertised. One caveat is you need to map out the taps for the frequencies you want with an antenna analyzer and write them down so you can quickly change bands on the fly without needing an antenna analyzer again.
The guys at Buddipole make a great product and probably the highest quality of the packaged portable antennas, but for a Buddistick style antenna the Great Lakes coil with mast and whip is a much better and easier to use antenna. I have no connection to Great Lakes Antennas except I'm a happy customer, and I'm not easy to please in the antenna department.
prcguy
Last edited:
- Status
