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Mike, WA2QIC's Ham Blog

Page 18

25-FEB-08:  RF MotherBoard Assembly Continued.

We interrupt this K2 build to bring you this portable antenna assembly

Because I am stalled waiting for a lousy rotten 5pf capacitor, I decided to fill the time constructively by assembling the K2's future portable antenna.  I recently purchased a Pacific Antenna PAC-12 portable multiband vertical.  Assembly is required - particularly the winding of the coils and radials.  In this case, I purchased the kit in 2 coil flavor, plus I purchased the 80m accessory coil.  Of course, you can buy additional coils for additional bands, and I will eventually do just that.

What attracted me to the PAC-12 was it's compact size, and the fact that most reviews on Eham.net were strongly positive.  So, I wound the 80m coil, then choose the other two coils to wind for 40m, and 20m.  Therefore, this is a tri-band vertical.  It is not in true multi-band vintage, so the coils must be swapped out for each band, which is no big deal for a dedicated portable antenna.  The assembly instructions were easy to follow.

Here are pics of the antenna.  While I have assembled it, I have not tuned it yet as I am short on coax.  So, that will have to wait until I can pick some up at the Split Rock Hamfest coming up this weekend.  I will tune the coils using my Yaesu FT-1000MP, since the K2 is unfinished.  And I will try to optimize the SWR for the CW band.  I will probably elect to build separate phone coils if these are not broadbanded enough.  Certainly this will be required for 80/75m.  Note that the top section of the vertical is a telescoping whip that is collapsed in the picture below

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