Products for ARES: The Buddistick Antenna
The ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford, Connecticut, in July, was one of the finest and most memorable conventions I've ever visited.

I saw many old friends there, one of whom was Dale Clift, NA1L, a former ARRL Headquarters colleague when we worked there together in the early eighties. He had become a QRP CW enthusiast, and I became fascinated with his stories of portable QRP mini-expeditions around New England with an antenna he highly recommended: the Buddipole system.

It happened that the manufacturer had a booth at the show, and Dale and I spent an hour with their competent reps. Their knowledge, Dale's good experience with the antenna, and my ever-present quest for quality Amateur Radio products for my own station, all conspired to cause me to open my wallet for a simpler antenna, by the same company, called a Buddistick™.

Buddistick™ is a portable, vertical antenna for 40 meters through 10 meters, for use with any transmitter up to 250 watts.
- The engineering is superb, and the quality of the components is top shelf. It is evident that the product was a labor of love by this company.

The reason I am including this in this newsletter, is that the antenna fills many of the needs of the disaster response or public service event communicator for an effective and efficient HF antenna system that is small and portable, strong and sturdy, and quickly assembled and disassembled.

The Buddistick is packaged in a compartmentalized 1000 denier cordura portfolio bag and includes 2 aluminum arms (blue or black), one standard telescopic whip, one adjustable coil, 2 coil clips, mounting kit, a complete counterpoise system, as well as a good operating manual. Included is one 31' radial on a line winder for use on all bands 40 meters through ten meters.

I mounted the mounting plate to a railing on my deck with the rubberized clamping knob. On the aluminum plate is an SO-239 connector for a coax feed (I used a 25 foot run of RG-8X); and the mounting adaptor for the arms, coil and telescoping whip.

I was able to assemble and mount the antenna to my railing in under three minutes.

I ran out the entire length of the 31 feet of radial wire, keeping it elevated off the ground, and attaching the end (on the winder) to a fence post. My radio is an ICOM IC-7000, with about a 100 watts output, and a low SWR. I think it's a good idea to have a small antenna tuner in line, and I run the LDG IT-100 auto tuner and Bird 43 wattmeter.

You can tune the antenna by ear: I simply connect the coax to my radio, set the Buddistick so I can reach the coil from my radio, turn the VFO to the frequency I want. Swipe the mini-banana plug that is attached to the bottom of the coil in an up and down motion. I listen for max signal and/or noise, and then place a tap in that position. I check the SWR to see if it's okay, I adjust the radial for resonance, and my antenna tuner to get the SWR down even further. My friend Dale uses an antenna analyzer with his Buddipole system.

My initial CW contact was with another friend, Eliot, W1MJ, in Boston, Massachusetts (I'm in northern Florida) on 40-meters. He runs an Elecraft K3 transceiver and a dipole fed by twin lead to his small backyard. Running only 5 watts, he was an S3 at my station. I was running 100 watts and was given a 579 report from Boston.

I was very happy with the antenna's performance for such a small, shortened vertical antenna. It just seems an ideal option for a public event or disaster response operator in the field.

Information on the Buddipole (a dipole system) and Buddistick products can be found at their website: www.buddipole.com

- K1CE
www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/?issue=2014-09-17