Is this the ultimate backpack portable antenna? MFJ 1979 whip and the Superantenna | Part 1 

First cup of tea for the day. Time spent well. Thanks Carl.

Great video, Carl, I really enjoyed how you manage to make a antenna using parts that you have available, nice job!

The closer the coil is to the feed point , The less inductance that's needed , As you move the coil away from the feed point the you will need a larger coil to bring it back to resonance.

Everything is worth a try Carl, experimenting is the game.

Stay Safe. Enjoy watching your channel. 👍🏻

Nice video Carl. Always good to muck around in the garden to see what we can come up with. I'm fancying one of them wolf River coils but I don't want to get hit with import tax from the states.

Nice one Carl, glad to see you catching some sun, playing radio and that every one is well in these crazy times.. Shame about the antenna, knowing you, this is going to be a very big test of lots of different parts. Any excuse to play radio. ;-) Take care and stay safe. 73's

Hi Carl, I never had any luck reliably getting my 1979 with a coil on 40, but 20 works a treat,.. cheers,.. 73

Such great timing, I’m in the middle or muddle of trying to make a simple to assemble antenna for portable working, whether SOTA or POTA. The Wolf River TIA seemed a good option but way too expensive to import. So next step was to research towards UK sourced components and came across your version. You have the components so I would urge you to continue. I have seen the TIA used as a centre loaded vertical which is of particular interest as is gives advantages over the normal configuration. Great to see you’ve been generously offered a SOTA version from Wolf. Plenty of time on my hands to contemplate what to do as I don’t have the parts you do. So keep going. 73 my friend M0AZE Mike.

Nice instructional video, and with your glamorous assistant :) more of this 'How to' is helpful, learning all your secrets??????????? 73's Paul M7RTS

Hey Carl, haven't been around lately, life gets in the way. Now, about keeping the antenna up. Get two or three tent pegs and drive them in between the legs with the hook part over each leg. This holds the legs in tension and help stabilize the base from tipping. Or a short piece of rope around the base of the antenna where the legs attach and one tent peg stuck in the ground directly under the center of the antenna. I've seen this done elsewhere. Might work for you.

Hi Carl, thanks for Your videos. Ihave some experiences with this telescopic rod and portable operations. But no video..... stay healty, Thomas.

3 or 4 lengths of para cord tied just above the coil and pegged down at 45 deg to the vertical works a treat with small tripod even on windy days. What you have there is exactly the same as any hamstick a base loaded vertical, obviously it will work pretty well. Good luck with your experiments Carl please don't give up with the idea you just picked a bad time for that band with all the QRM from those staying at home.

Muy bueno carlos 73

I think you were adjusting where the coils lies along the length of the antenna. I think you may get better results if you either change the value of the coil (for the length of wire) or lengthen/shorten the wire. Also have the coil at the bottom as it is then a loading coil and introducing XL counterbalancing the XC.

i made me own coil system like the wolf river coil with a whip but they do adjust the whip for better tuning. the tripod system is never stable enough you need to do like you did before with the camera tripod and some weight under it. another way would be a small disc and some pegs to go over the base to hold it down .

After watching your video II tried a slightly different arrangement and it works incredibly well. I used the MP1 Superantenna on it's optional large tripod, one extension rod, the loading coil, four radials, and the MFJ 1979 on top. I can get 1:1 SWR on both 20 with the coil adjustment all the way down and 40 meters by adjusting the coil slider up a few inches. I used a Xiegu G90 at 20 watts and was able to make two Italian contacts from Mississippi. That's over 5500 miles. The Italian stations gave me 5/7 and 5/8 signal reports. Neither could believe I was only running 20 watts. Since then, lots of additional contacts all over North America. This is my favorite portable antenna now, Thanks for the idea!

Interesting experiment. That tripod is very similar to the one on my Wolf River TIA kit. I use a right angle SO239 on the base of the tripod to alleviate a bit of strain on the coax and to aid a bit in stability. The long 1979 whip is a bit too heavy for that size tripod without sandbagging or guying it. The TIA comes with a shorter, lighter whip -- but which is also quite fragile.

Hi Carl. As well as questions of radiating efficiency, the economics of this solution don't make much sense to me. You spend the best part of £500 for the MP-1 then another £75 for the MFJ Whip (plus probably £20 in postage costs overall) -- so say £600 total and you have a bigger compromise antenna than when you started :-) I agree, get as much of a radiator as you can 'up in the air' but this seems the worst of all worlds -- and you will have to guy the MFJ/MP-1 combo to stop it crashing to the ground -- and guys as any portable Op knows, are a complete pain in the rear! Wouldn't you be better off getting a nice self supporting fibreglass mast on a spike and adding a half wave (and a balun)? At least your maximum current would then be 20 ft off the ground rather than 2 inches! Lots more experimenting needed! Don't you love this crazy hobby?! :-) 73 Bruce G4ABX

Try adding 2 X 10M extra ground counterpoise/radials Also it's useful if you can get an antenna analyser that sweeps, it's easier to find initial resonant start point

Carl, I have used the Wolf River Coil the way you showed and it works great all the way down to 80m. I did this with the larger coil. I suspect that will work for you just not sure if was conditions? I ran 60m FT8 for a month with the WRC and 1729 before I got the inverted L up on the DX Commander. I would say don't give up and try it again.

Using a slide coil on 40 meters is tricky to find that dip, a ton of radials help make it a bit more broadband. My old original MP1 super-antenna in it's normal configuration has blown my mind on 20 meters and up , sometimes everything just lines up and it works a treat. I've worked DX QRP and couldn't believe my ears when the DX station answers back. But 40 meters I never seem to (even with the swr good) be able to get any contacts. Even stations close. The problem here in the states so many folks have huge power amps, most of the big stations crank up the RF Gain and don't want to hear peanut whistle QRP- I hear "get some power bud, then try again" these dudes have receivers that can hear a bee fart 45 miles away, but they don't know ( or want) to listen for weaker signals.

Carl, enjoy your videos. Just get a 2 litre milk plastic bottle and fill it with water , tie it to the base of the tripod. The height of the whip is outside of the base and will always fall over. by adding weight you solve the problem. 73 Colin VK2JCC

I’d like to add to Lew’s point, the flipping whip was forever falling over when I was out. The tent peg idea works a treat. I’ve had the whip up in quite strong winds and had no problems.

my friend use a mfj 1979 with his buddy stick it work well on 80m

Thanks Carl, My Heath Robinson suggestion is to drill a hole near the base of each of the tripod legs and secure with tent pegs. But, hey what do I know. My loving daughter tells me I have ship for brains.......

Thanks for sharing Carl. I have never used or examined one of the MFJ telescopic whips. While it looks like it might be a useful addition to the /P armoury, I was wondering how much wind loading it will take? It looks like it was bending quite a bit with a gentle breeze in your garden?? One thing that might help for this set up is to cut some tuned radials for 40m (i.e. about 10m each) and raise them (keep them off the ground. Just 3 radials with the ends up maybe at least 2 feet off the ground. This may allow you to get a better match and a setup that can be reliably recreated at different sites. However, as you hint at in the video, the coil to introduces inefficiency - coils don't radiate. So, rule of thumb would be to go for a 40m vertical, inverted-L, end fed dipole as some examples which should be more efficient (and maybe lighter?).

HI Carl, MFJ do a coil for the 1979 tunes from 40 through to 6 meter. Not sure about purchase in the UK I bought an MFJ 2286 which is a complete coil and 1979 kit from WIMO in Germany. If you add a copper ground rod and clamp the MFJ to the rod with a wing mirror type clamp you only need a 25 ft radial. I get 40/30/20/17/15 no problems and it wont fall over. It is easy to tune as well. There is an american ham (Ham Radio Concepts) with a video about the 2286 and ground rod. Keep up the good work.

I was thinking that you might be able to steady the tripod by using a tent peg on each leg, or making three big ground staples out of wire coat hangers. I believe there are some possibilities.

hi bud havent read any comments but i use the same antenna with a ground spike and 3 light weight tent guy lines match it with an mfj 9201 tuner and 6 to 8 radials and it works well for a portable pack with my 817 can send pics if u want to see my backpack set up by the way love your posts keep up the gd work

The Wolf River coil is essentially the same thing as your Super Antenna coil...only a much cheaper, less aesthetically pleasing version. My results were much the same as yours on 40 meters. If you'd like to add a Wolf River Coil antenna to your arsenal, I'd send you my WRC "SOTA Special".... at no cost to you.

I've been wondering how well one of these mfj1979 style whips would work on a Miracle whip/wonder wand, for a cheap, portable solution... Any thoughts?

Any idea where can i buy this extension rod from? amazon link would be great! thanks

Hey buddy dont forget to. Put some kind or harness or sand bags on legs of the tripod. I broke my mfj 1979 exactly like that. I fell down and bye bye. 73

Couldnt u use some Grnd Spikes to Secure or when you can go play Radio use ur Car Plate you drive onto Carl? No neighbours Whinging with two Ants secured to the fence? Nuther Enjoyable Vid with mix of Humour 👍

Hello excellent video just a question I would like to buy the whip MFJ 1979 but in EHAM the reviews are not good as is your experience with that whip. Thanks Eddy KN4QFD

There is a simple calculator here ( www.66pacific.com/calculators/coil-shortened-vertical-antenna-calculator.aspx ) that may help you evaluate your design.

A slim jim would be smaller, liter, and would probably perform better.

Mfj1979 and Chameleon Hybrid Micro , great multi band combination

The ant ruler would help

Go careful with the zippy batteries - get a battery alarm - mine over discharged on a hot day last year and expanded. It’s been fizzing away in a bucket of salt water for over a week now. 73 de M0MFX

put a tent peg over each leg