Quick shelter and radio setup

[Sailor]

Hit the woods to test out a new antenna, Chameleon Cha-F magnetic loop. Very fast setup and works great. 7-8 minutes for me to set up my tarp shelter, and 3 minutes to set up the radio and antenna and get on the air. With the contests going on it was hard for my little FT-817 and 5w to bust through all the kilowatt stations with beams, but I got contacts to OK, and a few NVIS to Warren Dunes and Youngstown OH.

 

[PistolBob]

Very nice....details on the loop?

 

[Sailor]

So yeah, I wanted a small footprint antenna I could set on a table indoors if needed or in areas outside that I was not able to string up an endfed. Saw some of these videos and gave it a shot.

[video=youtube;y4w6aWfA3EY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4w6aWfA3EY[/video]

[video=youtube;Ah2HAFZcdtY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah2HAFZcdtY[/video]

I have been very impressed. The receive on this thing is fantastic. No tuner required. I have had it out 5 times maybe now in the last few weeks with my 817. Still need to fully test it but initially I am very happy. 2-3 min to set up the radio and antenna. Tune for loudest receive and talk. micro adjust if your swr is off per the radios meter.

If I had time/skills I would build one with higher power rating. But I dont.