if this antenna was attached to the shoulder area of my load bearing equipment (radio in a chest or wait level pouch with jumper coax), would it remain bent into the vertical plane while I was in a prone position? I cannot tell how stiff the antenna is from the video. Thanks
It's not very stiff....you'll note in the video that when the radio is held horizontally the antenna starts to droop. I would imagine in a prone position as long as you were NOT crawling it would be OK....but any movement will cause it to gradually start drooping. I found it it pretty inadequate for hand held use due to movement causing it to fall over. I did find another antenna which is much better...can be folded very easily and has very good spring in it. It's now my go-to antenna for everything. The nitinol antennas are easily foldable in a small circle and basically cannot be permanently bent. So they work well under jacket or with a jumper coax would work very well in prone position if you duct taped it to a back pack for example. signalstuff.com/antennas/
Michael Black thanks I am looking for a "bendy" antenna similar to the nite ize gear ties. in the army, the PRC 77 had a flexible gooseneck attachment for the short whip while in MANPADS mode. that's the effect I am looking for
I played a bit with this antenna...it is close to a gear tie...but its worst bending point is at the connector which you can see in the video when I hold it horizontally. With a bit of support at the connector should do what you want. I found if I hold it about 1 inch above the connector it does not droop nearly as much. You could probably use a pen body or such....glue it to the connector to give the bottom end of the antenna some support. You could probably zip tie some gear ties to it too and get some passive coupling but should still work.
I put two layers of shrinking hose around the lower 1/3 of the antenna after reading y'alls comments here. Works like a charm. I just recommend to be very careful with the heating to shrink the hose. Wouldn't recommend a lighter
