@lorazepam was kind enough to send me an antenna to try out. He of course, dabbles in the dark-web, silk-road sources of RF gadgets and gizmos. So the source of this item is yet unknown.

Out of the package we have;

A “hub” with a SO239 connector made of a hardened polymer, plastic, or something. Feels very sturdy. Each end is threaded (not 3/8-24).

A stainless steel telescoping whip and ground spike, with common threading.

A 10 wire ribbon cable terminated at a single ring terminal.

Attached File

The whip is 12 sections and measured 205” fully extended.
The ribbon.cable was 194.5”.
The hub does not have markings telling you which end is the antenna or ground. But there is a little tab thing sticking out by the SO239 connector, that end is the ground/spike end.

Test Conditions;

Dry, soft soil. Low rock/sand content. Missouri farming soil.

Test 1)

Spike 50% inserted into ground, ribbon between spike and hub, antenna fully extended.

1.8SWR at 14.180mhz.

Test 2)

Began separating the 10 wires contained in the ribbon. Left two at full length for 20M ane cut the rest for the other bands.

17m 155”,  15m 132”,12m 112.5”, 10m 98.5”. Each band having two wires.

All wires fanned out in a circle.

Result.

Fully extended at 12 sections, 1.3 SWR at 14.180mhz. Resonant at 14.760
3 sections down, 18.100mhz 1.1swr
4.5 down, 21.250mhz, 1.05 SWR
5.5 down, 24.940mhz, 1.1 swr
7 down, 28.6mhz, 1.2 swr

Thoughts;

comes slightly short on the whip and ribbon for 20m as tested.
I very much like the hub/spike design. Although, i will be tapering the spike to be more “pointy” on a lathe, as I find it a little fat towards the end for ground spiking.
The ribbon is a good wire for radials with no “memory” to kink it up. I believe this is a low cost, effective solution.

This whip compared to the Wolf River whip I have, which I think is version 2, and they are on at least version 3.

- the wolf river whip (also 12 sections) is longer at 212.5”, which provides better resonance into CW/digital.
- the version 2+ wolf river whips are crimped at all sections of the whip, this tested whip is not crimped at the highest sections, and possible prone to section separation over time. But that is speculation.
- this whip is has much more friction when sliding the sections up/down, so much so, that you run the risk of bending this whip if you are not carefully to push/pull vertically. (Also speculation)


Summary.

This is a very nice portable system, and I VERY much like the hub/spike solution.
Not being 3/8-24 is unfortunate, as it does not interface with US market items, but not a big deal.
The whip and ribbon are electrically short, but still very much usable.

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Edit; 6/22/24 one section of this antenna was stuck. Once I got it pulled out, lowest resonance is 13.600  MHz.

It's a very basic quarter-wavelength vertical with a single counterpoise or radials if you choose to pull the individual wires apart on the ribbon.  The red thing just acts as a hub, with the coax center going to the whip side and the ground going to the ground spike side, which you attach the counterpoise/radials to.  Tune it by taking the whip in and out  so its a 1/4-wavelength long at the desired frequency.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005006230834239.html

Also known as aliexpress

It's a 10mm thread. I have two of the telescoping whips.

Antenna kit

Adapter to fit the 10mm threaded whip onto a 3/8" thread mount

Telescoping whip

Beat me to the punch. They're threaded differently than the usual 3/8-24 as I discovered recently.

Those whips are monsters, 18 feet or so IIRC. They're about $25 on amazon. They're being sold as
some kind of V antenna component there.

I bought one for 30 dollars, and they sent two of them by mistake. They said keep it because it cost too much to send it back, so I sent it to Dave. My testing is pretty close to his, and the whip experience much the same.
If you want a dirt cheap vertical for portable, it is a great deal. As posted, you can get a 10x1.5 mm male to 3/8x24 female to use a different whip like chameleon or wolf river.
I too like the spike and adapter, they are compact and lightweight. The collapsed whip is pretty short, and easier to pack than the others. Not sure how long it will last.
There is also a 40m coil available for around 25 dollars.
Thanks for the review Dave!
Edit: This one is 27 bucks with free shipping.

I just drilled a hole in a PVC pipe cap as an insulator and got a 10mm nut at the hardware store to attach it. I should probably just order one of those insulator/feedpoint things from aliexpress.

Mine extended far enough to easily tune below 20 meters, so I'm wondering if possibly you had a section that was a little sticky and didn't extend?

I had to shorten mine as well.

It is possible. A few of the sections had a lot of friction, from what I suspect to be over crimping. It is possible i either didnt pull it all the way out, or this example is crimped in a manner that it left one section short.

I will look at it more closely the next time I take it out.

My box looked like that one, and two sections of my antenna were pushed in too far. They came out ok, but it is pretty stiff to extend.

That's really pretty slick looking and very easy to deploy. It could be easily mounted to a deck rail as well as ground level.
73,
Rob
ETA: I ordered one!

As a side note, I have been interested in the idea of phasing single band verticals ever since hearing DXCommander talk about it.

With the availability of these inexpensive verticals…….. i am wondering if this would be a cool portable project……… is the juice worth the squeeze?

Can you get some gain by setting up a couple of these?

I did experiments with two (not these, but vertical military-style whips from buddiepole), and the phasing box I used
sucked up enough of the gain to make it not worth it, a better bit of hardware might have made a difference.

I do think doing four (four square array) would have some payoff, in theory I think it's 5dB, but the bigger
benefit is probably being able to be directional and kill off some noise. That's going to be a lot of space and
radials for a temporary install, but if you're spending the weekend camping it might be worthwhile. If anyone
tries I'd love to hear about it.

One section of that antenna was stuck, and needed some love to come out. Fully extended resonance is 13.6MHz

A friend of mine, ages ago, phased a couple of inverted "Ls" using cheap Radio Shack coax. It's a matter of using enough coax as a delay line so the wave forms combine in the favored direction. It worked pretty well; though, I never heard him quote any numbers.
73,
Rob

About 8 years ago I was fined quite heavily by Customs for a purchase I made on Alibaba. Is there a monetary threshold below which there is generally no problem?

I think generally speaking it is $2500, but import duty has categories.

It has been a while since I looked into it.

You can get a bit of gain.

Theoretically 2 identical antennas combined can give you 3.01 dB of gain.

In practice you get 2.5 or less.

A 2.5 dB increase in a signal you are receiving  will move the average analog s-meter about the width of the needle.

Rege

Murphy will bet you that no matter what direction you aim your foursquare the best null will be in the wrong direction!

If you are only worried about rx noise, I found small loops, and even ferrite loopstick antennas , because I can spin and tilt then in all directions,  sometimes find a perfect null on noise.

IMHO arrays like a four-square  are better for somebody in a permanent  location, the gain is modest, less than a s-unit. That's a lot of work out in the field  for a few hours.

Rege

One other thing; these adjustable Marconi antennas are fantastic.

To set up a four-square that is steerable requires a phasing and switching unit that is frequency specific.

In other words, a lot of work on one band, and  impossible on multiple bands.

You can use the same 4 antennas in a row for multi band gain, but the gain you get is very modest as you qsy

Good deal. A 40m coil is available for these for around 25 bucks. They work.

I was going to make my own 40m coil but I should probably just order one, and an insulator/feedpoint.

I made one out of a piece of 2" pvc, two end caps, 9'6" of stranded 16ga wire, a 3/8x24 coupling nut, 2 3/8x24 bolts and 4 nuts. It's butt ugly, but works great.

I suspect this might he the same whip sold with the PAC-12 antennas.  Those come with a loading coil and several mast sections, and I think the coil and additional mast sections get you 40m as well.

We had a thread on the JPC-12 (or PAC-12) a couple of years ago if someone wants to dig through the archives.

That one uses an elevated adjustable coil. It does 40-10.

Not sure if this thread is the place to do this, but I wanted to ask if anyone besides me has tried doing an inverted L with a 17' whip and a length of wire in place of a base loaded coil for 40m? I tried it a couple years ago portable when checking into the net, and Andre was pretty impressed with my signal that night to the point of asking what my antenna was.
I'm considering going portable and trying out my home made coil vs the whip and a piece of wire. I have the ability to set both up at once, and see what a difference there is between the two.
I don't think tonight is the night to try though.

I tried to test it once and had two failures.

1) I needed lighter gauge wire.

2) It was too windy. The wind was catching the extra wire and really doing a number on the whip.

24 awg is what I use. doesn't need a big alligator clip, it will shoot low power out just fine.
This wire is awesome for portable antennas. No memory, doesn't tangle up into a mess, and is pretty dang durable. Multiple color options for different antennas. 22awg picked at random.

This is from a park in Oklahoma and the OPs antenna not modified.

Made fr8 contacts to Japan, Spain, France, all over us.

Very nice!

As far as a radio antenna, this is a Classic Marconi,  you can $pend more money, but you will not get a louder signal.

IMHO, the Quarter wavelength Marconi, and the half wavelength center fed dipole (Hertz antenna), are absolutely simple, foolproof antennas, and should be what most stations use.

Rege

They work really well. I am going to hang a wire on mine from the top to a fishing pole for a 40m antenna. I have done it with other whips, and it does pretty well. Or you can buy the coil for around 20 bucks. Coil
There is an adapter to use 3/8x24 threaded whips available as well. Adapter Get the silver adapter, you want M10 male and 3/8 female.
It's a pretty good deal to get a vertical portable antenna that will do 40-6m for 60 bucks complete.
Something that makes setup easier is to take it out somewhere, set it up and tune to each band where you want it, and mark it with a sharpie. If you adjust radials, mark with tape. Spending an hour doing this gets you a quick set up in the field and an antenna that most likely won't need tuning when you hit the marks.
Ground difference will affect it somewhat from place to place, but it will be close.

I've been thinking about the coil for 40M myself, I hope the coil form is plastic, because it looks metallic. Anybody have the 40M coil now? The antenna will setup on my deck really well.
73,
Rob
ETA: I just now took a good look at the 3/8 X 24 adapter, I have some quick on/off mobile mounts and a few mobile antennas, This looks better and better.

I had enough time today between showers to open up my awning and dry it out, as it was used and put up in the rain yesterday. While I let it dry out, I set up my chinese vertical and marked it for 20-6m using the supplied radial bundle. The worst tune was on 10m, and it was 1.36-1. Everything else was better. I didn't get to play with 40m, there was a storm coming, and I got things put away before the rain hit again. I like this antenna, and it will probably be my first choice going portable.
Attached File

The 40m coil appears to be nylon or delrin where the wire wraps, and the metal caps on the end. I would drill and tap each cap end so I could put a couple of screws on each side of the coil so I could bypass it and not have to take it off for 20 and up. Just use a jumper with alligator clips.

This is now officially my new "RV" antenna in the pop up. IT's not going to replace the random wire or my fancy telescoping antenna for backpacking but this Chinese thing works great.  Here is 24 hours .

@lorazepam
Thanks for the reply, my coil is "in the mail".
73,
Rob

Has anyone tried that 40m coil? There is a comment on one of the Ali listings that its not enough to tune 40. I'm wondering if it's made to work with those rigid sections that come with their full kits. It looks like the adjustable coils are larger, but I'd just as soon stay with the more "solid state" one if it will work.

My coil for 40M should be on the way, I'm going to drill a hole in the deck rail to "mount" the antenna, and plan on tuning  it with my MFJ 259B. I want to see if I can get 40M, 30M and 20M out of this setup.
73,
Rob

Mine works. I got it because it is so compact. Strangely, it tunes better with less radials.

@lorazepam
Beware this notion, there are HF verticals that tune well in this regard, the problem is that while the antenna presents a good load, the radiation efficiency is literally in the dirt.  A vertical with lots of radials will have an SWR of approximately 1:5 to 1, It's because the radials are at 90 deg. to the driven element. Get out lots of radials, your signal will improve.
73,
Rob
ETA:
I had an experience with this purchase, when I got notice that the package was at customs I soon got a text, purported to be from the USPS, that there was a problem with the zip code. The real USPS calls this "smishing" and it's an information gathering attack. Another clue was that the the given phone number was in a Canadian province. The USPS advised not to click on the text and to delete it asap. My package cleared customs this AM.

ETA 2: Coil arrived today 9/27/24

Yeah, I got over the chase for 1:1 a while ago. I would rather see the 50 ohm match up than a super low swr.

I have been super busy, but I am going to use some fiberglass rods or bamboo…. Or something…..to elevate the radials, with the radiator up on a tripod. Test that against ground spiking, and see if that effort if worth the time portable.

If you are going to do elevated radials then they need to be tuned to length and you will only need a couple of them.

Ground mounted radials can be random lengths but the more the merrier.

I made a couple radial wire winders out of flea market fly fishing reels. Gunna wind them in/out and just use two.

Still need to bond them to the ground side of my tripod mount…… so it is all tied together for transport.

Maybe this weekend.

My guess is two 17' elevated radials will do 40. Probably make the antenna more directional than ground radials.

You will have to play with the length as they will act like loaded radials with the coil of wound wire. Telescopic radials would work better.

So far I have the antenna up for maybe a week and it seems fine. Also got today the 40m coil. Anybody knows what the length of this is, do I just put it under the whip and leave the whip as if it is tuned for 20m?

Also, it runs better with 5 radials then with all ten.

Just put it between the whip and the base. You may have to adjust the whip and radials a bit to get it tuned.

What 40m coil are you guys using?  I'm not seeing it on the website.

Here Scroll down and you will have other options.

That’s the one I got and to answer my own question: whip fully extended gives me swr below 2 so the whip could be a little bit longer. Thinking about finding a small extension bolt with the m10 threading. Maybe need an inch or maybe three to get there.