I've got an idea......

[rabidmoose57]

I wanted to throw out an idea, and see what youall think of it. The notion came to me to turn a rubber duck into a groundplane type base antenna. Would it be redundant to add a further set of radials, or are "duckies" already wound as a groundplane? Just wondering if the experiment would be a waste of cash, and an excercise in futility.Thanks!

 

[SAR923]

Waste of cash and exercise in futility. Rubber duck antennas, in general, are not very efficient to begin with and adding some kind of ground plane won't help matters much. Get a real ground plane if you want better performance.

 

[hoser147]

I dont see what adding the radials are going to do, but this winter I took an RS 800 antenna and some RG 62 coax that I had layin around and mounted it outside and up about 16 ft. It helped me pull in some counties that I never got before. Im still using it and plan to put it up on my main mast and see what it does there..............Hoser

 

[Mikey54]

There used to be a company that would sell a "Tiger Tail" that was basically a 19" wire with a loop connected to one end that would go on to the radio's BNC connector, and it actually did improve transmit and receive slightly.

Mike VE3MKY