Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA (take it along) vertical Antenna
2022-07-27 What makes a Wolf River Coils (WRC) antenna a good portable antenna choice? It is, after all, simply a vertical with a loading coil. There are many other similar options available or one can be "easily" made by most anyone who is somewhat handy. The WRC is a multiband antenna but only with hands on band changes. It's not particularly small and compact nor light weight. And it is kind of gangly to transport. It's kind of "crude" with no protective covers or anything. Everything is out in the open. So why is it so popular?
Cost is certainly high on the list of reasons. It's not cheap but compared with most other similar antennas it is affordable. But I think it's main advantage over most others is it's simplicity and flexibility in deploying and setting up. Take the coil, for example. Nothing is preset. There are no preset taps. The collars are kind of crude but they are infinitely and simply adjustable. Some kind of wide range SWR meter is very helpful (I like a VNA as it covers such a wide range) but beyond that everything you need for use on almost any HF frequency is "in the box."
In my opinion there is no other portable vertical antenna that is any better in terms of cost and flexibility. And as to performance, a vertical is a vertical. The WRC is no better or worse than any other vertical in terms of performance, once tuned properly. A WRC will always be one of my two go-to portable antennas along side my KM4ACK EFHW. With those two antennas I have a fully equipped arsenal of HF portable antennas. Which one to use in any give situation is based on the immediate circumstances and personal preference! Either one will fill the log if propagation allows.
How I set up and tune my WRC with 17' whip
I see a lot of folks having trouble tuning their WRC antennas. Using the WRC 17' whip is the easiest as its length can be adjusted to be a 1/4 wavelength on 20 meters. From there the collars on the coil can be set to resonate on any frequency lower than 14Mhz. And for higher bands the whip can be shortened to be resonant on the higher frequency bands. To do this I suggest a) one simple modification to the coil and, b) have on hand a reasonably good antenna analyzer. I use WRC with the coil at the bottom so I will write from that perspective. The concepts should work with a center loaded antenna as well.
The coil modification involves adding a short pigtail to the very top of the coil with a female bullet connector so you can easily bypass the coil which is necessary for frequencies from 14Mhz and up. I simply removed the 3/8-24 coupling from the top of the coil, put my premade 2" or so pigtail and put the coupling back on. Now the lead from the bottom of the coil can simply be plugged into that new pigtail to bypass the coil. Be sure to use two wrenches to hold the nut in place on top of the coil while you remove the coupling so you don't loosen anything inside the coil form itself. The coupling was put on Loctite Threadlocker or something similar so it will take some pressure to remove it.
In my opinion a NanoVNA or at least an analyzer that can scan and hopefully graph the SWR over a range beyond the ham bands will be very helpful. With most antennas the hardest part of tuning them is determining on what frequency they are resonant to start with. A good analyzer is the only way, or at least the easiest way, to determine whether your antenna is too short or two long.
All verticals need some form of radials or counterpoise wires. Since I use mine primarily portable, with the loading coil at the bottom, my counterpoise wires are simply laid out on the ground. So that is what I'll assume. After playing with mine for a while I've settled on using four ten-foot counterpoise wires. I soldered the four together at one end to a terminal which makes them easy to store and install. I decided to drill a female bullet sized hole in the coil base and then put a bullet plug on that bundle so I can simply plug them into the hole, fan them out evenly as spokes in a wheel and I'm done. You could also simply solder them to a ring terminal like on the stock radials and attach them to one leg.
Start by assembling and setting up the antenna with the 17' whip fully extended. I generally use a 25' length of RG-174 coax since I run low power. Connect coal to the analyzer. Finally, plug the lead from the bottom of the coil to the added pigtail to bypass the coil.
Turn on your analyzer and find the frequency where the antenna has the lowest SWR. With the whip fully extended it should be somewhat below 14Mhz, likely down around 13Mhz. That means the whip is too long. Starting with the bottom section of the whip, collapse it a few inches and recheck. If everything is connected correctly the lowest SWR should have shifted higher. Continue shortening and checking until the lowest SWR point and hence resonant frequency of the antenna is maybe 14.1Mhz. Put a piece of tape or something on the antenna temporarily to mark the spot.
Connect your radio and play around on 20 meters, checking from the bottom of the band to the top to make sure the SWR is OK all the way. If it is about 1.5 to 2:1 across the band, you are done. If you operate toward one end of the band or the other and want to tweak the length of the whip to be accordingly, fine, but I suggest you never favor either end so much that it is essentially unusable across the entire band. On 20 meters it is pretty broad so that shouldn't be much of a problem. If you are satisfied with it, remove the tape and use a permanent marker and draw a ring on the whip section so when you put it up again you can easily return to that length. That is a magical length, and you will always set it there to use the antenna on 20, 30, 40, 60 and 80 meters. Don't deviate unless you want to complicate your life!
Now to collar placement. Move your collar, the top of the coil. Reattach your antenna analyzer AND DON'T TOUCH THE WHIP. As described above find the lowest SWR frequency. If you set the collar at the top of coil it should be nearly same as when you finished setting up for 20 meters. All that has changed the added inch or two of wire from the collar to the top of the coil. Now lower the collar a turn (or click) or two. The lowest SWR frequency should move down. Keep moving the collar down a couple turns at a time until the antenna is resonant (lowest SWR) around 10.15Mhz. Once again connect to your radio and check around to find the location that you are most happy with. 30m is so narrow that it doesn't make much difference but be sure you are happy.
Now move your lead from the 30m collar to the next lower collar (if you have more than one collar which I suggest) and repeat the process until you have that collar positioned where you want it for 40m. If you don't have a second collar, using a permanent marker put a line on the coil at the top of the 30m collar so you can return to that position easily in the future. Then move the collar down using the above procedure until you find the sweet spot for 40 meters. Mark the coil.
That’s it for 40, 30 and 20 meters.
For 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters you need to adjust the length of the whip. Start by bypassing the coil just as you do 20 meters. Then using the procedure above with your analyzer, begin shortening the whip (from the bottom) until the lowest SWR is around 18Mhz. Mark the whip. Shorten it again until lowest SWR is 21.2Mhz and so on until you have all those bands marked on your whip.
You are all done!
I use mine a lot in many different places over everything from paved parking lots and damp grass and never have to adjust a thing unless I accidentally move a coil or fail to properly extend the whip! It is so nice to just take it out of the bag, set it for the band I want and start calling CQ or whatever. It is my favorite portable antenna. Hope you find the same.
I see a lot of folks having trouble tuning their WRC antennas. Using the WRC 17' whip is the easiest as its length can be adjusted to be a 1/4 wavelength on 20 meters. From there the collars on the coil can be set to resonate on any frequency lower than 14Mhz. And for higher bands the whip can be shortened to be resonant on the higher frequency bands. To do this I suggest a) one simple modification to the coil and, b) have on hand a reasonably good antenna analyzer. I use WRC with the coil at the bottom so I will write from that perspective. The concepts should work with a center loaded antenna as well.
The coil modification involves adding a short pigtail to the very top of the coil with a female bullet connector so you can easily bypass the coil which is necessary for frequencies from 14Mhz and up. I simply removed the 3/8-24 coupling from the top of the coil, put my premade 2" or so pigtail and put the coupling back on. Now the lead from the bottom of the coil can simply be plugged into that new pigtail to bypass the coil. Be sure to use two wrenches to hold the nut in place on top of the coil while you remove the coupling so you don't loosen anything inside the coil form itself. The coupling was put on Loctite Threadlocker or something similar so it will take some pressure to remove it.
In my opinion a NanoVNA or at least an analyzer that can scan and hopefully graph the SWR over a range beyond the ham bands will be very helpful. With most antennas the hardest part of tuning them is determining on what frequency they are resonant to start with. A good analyzer is the only way, or at least the easiest way, to determine whether your antenna is too short or two long.
All verticals need some form of radials or counterpoise wires. Since I use mine primarily portable, with the loading coil at the bottom, my counterpoise wires are simply laid out on the ground. So that is what I'll assume. After playing with mine for a while I've settled on using four ten-foot counterpoise wires. I soldered the four together at one end to a terminal which makes them easy to store and install. I decided to drill a female bullet sized hole in the coil base and then put a bullet plug on that bundle so I can simply plug them into the hole, fan them out evenly as spokes in a wheel and I'm done. You could also simply solder them to a ring terminal like on the stock radials and attach them to one leg.
Start by assembling and setting up the antenna with the 17' whip fully extended. I generally use a 25' length of RG-174 coax since I run low power. Connect coal to the analyzer. Finally, plug the lead from the bottom of the coil to the added pigtail to bypass the coil.
Turn on your analyzer and find the frequency where the antenna has the lowest SWR. With the whip fully extended it should be somewhat below 14Mhz, likely down around 13Mhz. That means the whip is too long. Starting with the bottom section of the whip, collapse it a few inches and recheck. If everything is connected correctly the lowest SWR should have shifted higher. Continue shortening and checking until the lowest SWR point and hence resonant frequency of the antenna is maybe 14.1Mhz. Put a piece of tape or something on the antenna temporarily to mark the spot.
Connect your radio and play around on 20 meters, checking from the bottom of the band to the top to make sure the SWR is OK all the way. If it is about 1.5 to 2:1 across the band, you are done. If you operate toward one end of the band or the other and want to tweak the length of the whip to be accordingly, fine, but I suggest you never favor either end so much that it is essentially unusable across the entire band. On 20 meters it is pretty broad so that shouldn't be much of a problem. If you are satisfied with it, remove the tape and use a permanent marker and draw a ring on the whip section so when you put it up again you can easily return to that length. That is a magical length, and you will always set it there to use the antenna on 20, 30, 40, 60 and 80 meters. Don't deviate unless you want to complicate your life!
Now to collar placement. Move your collar, the top of the coil. Reattach your antenna analyzer AND DON'T TOUCH THE WHIP. As described above find the lowest SWR frequency. If you set the collar at the top of coil it should be nearly same as when you finished setting up for 20 meters. All that has changed the added inch or two of wire from the collar to the top of the coil. Now lower the collar a turn (or click) or two. The lowest SWR frequency should move down. Keep moving the collar down a couple turns at a time until the antenna is resonant (lowest SWR) around 10.15Mhz. Once again connect to your radio and check around to find the location that you are most happy with. 30m is so narrow that it doesn't make much difference but be sure you are happy.
Now move your lead from the 30m collar to the next lower collar (if you have more than one collar which I suggest) and repeat the process until you have that collar positioned where you want it for 40m. If you don't have a second collar, using a permanent marker put a line on the coil at the top of the 30m collar so you can return to that position easily in the future. Then move the collar down using the above procedure until you find the sweet spot for 40 meters. Mark the coil.
That’s it for 40, 30 and 20 meters.
For 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters you need to adjust the length of the whip. Start by bypassing the coil just as you do 20 meters. Then using the procedure above with your analyzer, begin shortening the whip (from the bottom) until the lowest SWR is around 18Mhz. Mark the whip. Shorten it again until lowest SWR is 21.2Mhz and so on until you have all those bands marked on your whip.
You are all done!
I use mine a lot in many different places over everything from paved parking lots and damp grass and never have to adjust a thing unless I accidentally move a coil or fail to properly extend the whip! It is so nice to just take it out of the bag, set it for the band I want and start calling CQ or whatever. It is my favorite portable antenna. Hope you find the same.
2021-08-10 My current iteration of this outstanding antenna uses the mini coil from Wolf River Coils with a bypass pigtail at the top and two collars and the Chameleon CHA-SS17 Standalone Stainless Steel Whip. I use four ten foot counterpoise wires. It is pretty compact and light weight for transport. And by finding and marking the approximate lengths of the whip with the coil bypassed for all bands from 20 meters up and the two collars set for 30 and 40 meters it makes a very good nearly all HF band portable antenna. I've logged just under 500 contacts with this configuration with power levels ranging from 5 watts to 20 watts, mostly CW but some SSB.
2021-02-24 I've recently been using my WRC TIA1000 with 213" whip for my POTA activations along with my QRP rig. I put four collars on it so along with the connector at the whip base I can select 20, 30, 40 60 and 80 by simply moving the pigtail to the appropriate collar. I also have pretty much settled on using four ten foot 18 gauge speaker wires for counterpoise on all bands with SWR below 2:1 on all bands.
It is quick and easy to set up, has a very small footprint and seems to get good signal reports with ten or more contacts each activation on 40, 30 and 20 meters. I have not had any contacts on 60m or 80m with it, simply have not tried but the SWR is low on both bands.
Today, concerned whether more or different counterpoise arrangements might perform better I did some systematic SWR measurements with combinations of the four ten foot wires, eight ten foot wires, a 33 foot and a 23 foot wire. Frankly except for reduced hand effect on 80 meters I saw very little difference in SWR. On 80 meters all hand effect went away if I added any of the other options to the minimal setup of the four 10' wires. And, I noticed that with my rigs internal the tuner engaged, hand effect went away with just the four ten foot ones.
I was unable to assess performance as the bands seemed very poor today so I heard very little activity even on my main station and antenna. So not sure how valuable my observations are. But there they are! It's a very good portable antenna.
It is quick and easy to set up, has a very small footprint and seems to get good signal reports with ten or more contacts each activation on 40, 30 and 20 meters. I have not had any contacts on 60m or 80m with it, simply have not tried but the SWR is low on both bands.
Today, concerned whether more or different counterpoise arrangements might perform better I did some systematic SWR measurements with combinations of the four ten foot wires, eight ten foot wires, a 33 foot and a 23 foot wire. Frankly except for reduced hand effect on 80 meters I saw very little difference in SWR. On 80 meters all hand effect went away if I added any of the other options to the minimal setup of the four 10' wires. And, I noticed that with my rigs internal the tuner engaged, hand effect went away with just the four ten foot ones.
I was unable to assess performance as the bands seemed very poor today so I heard very little activity even on my main station and antenna. So not sure how valuable my observations are. But there they are! It's a very good portable antenna.
2021-02-10 I have been using my mini coil with the WRC antenna with a tap at the top for 20m and a collar for 30m as well as one for 40m. It works very well and is one of my three go-to antennas for POTA and other portable uses. But increasingly some stations are starting to use 60 meters, or at least I have become aware of them. So today I got out my TIA 1000 coil and transferred my four collars to it as well as putting a short pigtail just under the whip mount.
With those changes, I tuned it up with a lot of running back and forth between the antenna set up outside on my sidewalk in 10 degree weather and my x5105 (I love its SWR sweep) inside our warm house! It now has a preset tap for all five bands with my four 10' counterpoise wires.
The SWR on all bands other than 60 meters is below 1.5:1. On 60 meters I could not get it much below 3:1. Not sure why. I adjust the 213" whip length to be resonant on 20 meters with the coil bypassed and then don't touch it again. Could my 3:1 SWR be because 60 meters is not harmonically related to the others?
Sorry I didn't think to take a picture of it set up. So the photo shows the antenna in the bag I carry it in.
With those changes, I tuned it up with a lot of running back and forth between the antenna set up outside on my sidewalk in 10 degree weather and my x5105 (I love its SWR sweep) inside our warm house! It now has a preset tap for all five bands with my four 10' counterpoise wires.
The SWR on all bands other than 60 meters is below 1.5:1. On 60 meters I could not get it much below 3:1. Not sure why. I adjust the 213" whip length to be resonant on 20 meters with the coil bypassed and then don't touch it again. Could my 3:1 SWR be because 60 meters is not harmonically related to the others?
Sorry I didn't think to take a picture of it set up. So the photo shows the antenna in the bag I carry it in.
2020-11-19 I very much like my WRC antenna. Normally I set it up with the 213" whip and the three 33' radials. I have added a bullet jack to a short pigtail immediately under the whip so I can bypass the coil for 20 meters. then I adjust the whip for lowest SWR on 20. Then I set the two collars I have on the mini coil for 30 and 40 meters respectively. Band changing is then simply a matter of moving the bullet plug terminated long pigtail from the bottom to the appropriate bullet jack for the band I want. No retuning or anything. Works slick.
I also have a wire version of the WRC built around QRPGuys three band vertical. I tune it exactly the same way with equally excellent results by simply flipping the switches. The only notable electrical difference between the two antennas is that WRC specifies three 33' radials and QRPGuys recommends four 10 foot radials.
I also have a wire version of the WRC built around QRPGuys three band vertical. I tune it exactly the same way with equally excellent results by simply flipping the switches. The only notable electrical difference between the two antennas is that WRC specifies three 33' radials and QRPGuys recommends four 10 foot radials.
So today I set up the WRC using the 10' radials. I tuned it up and got a 1:1 SWR on all three bands and made two 20 meter and one 40 meter contacts with POTA stations. Results were good.
Then I replaced the four 10' radials with the three 33' ones and checked the SWR. With the coil bypassed for 20 meters, the 1:1 SWR frequency decreased from about 14.1mhz to about 13.6mhz. I had to shorten the vertical element by about 6 inches to bring it up into the band. It was getting late and dinner was called so I didn't get a change to check the other two bands or make any contacts. I've used it quite a few times before so am guessing I will need to move each collar a bit but that it will perform well as it always has.
Now the quandry.... which set of radials to use normally. Both work. I have no dependable way to actually compare performance. But at least I know I can get results either way. The shorter ones are simpler and quicker to deploy so I may lean toward them.
It's been a fun exercise.
It's been a fun exercise.
2020-03-15 With the temperature in the 40's, after church this morning I decided to set up the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA antenna using the 17ft whip and the mini coil at the bottom. I also connected six 33ft radials and had a 50' RG-8x coax going to the radio. Took a bit of tweaking but the SWR was very good on 40, 30 and 20 meters with the whip almost fully extended. I only had two QSOs with it but signals were strong. Both were SSB using my xiegu G90 at 20 watts. It's a very good free standing antenna. If I'm not backpacking, it will go with me when I operate portable.
The antenna is quite a bit easier to set up with the coil at the bottom rather than four feet off the ground. Whether the coil location makes much difference in real use or not I don't know. I saw a note on a FACEBOOK post that if there is any difference it is not material.
2020-02-03 Playing with this antenna has got me thinking about trying to duplicate this center loaded WRC only using this QRPGuys three band vertical and wire. Will at least be an interesting and perhaps fun effort.
2020-02-04 I read a post on Facebook about this antenna and the guy mentioned that he used just one 24' extension beneath the coil instead of two and simply adjusted the top whip accordingly. So I assembled mine on the dining room table and extended the whip so that the distance from the tripod mount to the tip of the whip was 17 feet. Then I carefully took it outside and stood it up where I've been playing with it the past few days. I left the taps on the coil as set yesterday with two 24" extensions beneath the coil. My measurements are very similar to those for the elevated coil yesterday as shown below. So I guess elevated is elevated. The amount is not critical, from an SWR and resonant frequency point of view. I have no idea how all that impacts its on-air performance. I had two more QSOs with it, one on 30 meters and one on 20 meters. Neither garnered great signal reports but it worked.
I checked the Reverse Beacon Network after I took everything down and two stations, KM3T in VA (628mi) and W1NT in Ohio (878mi) copied my CQs on both 40 and 30 meters. Their signal to noise reports were fairly similar and both heard me better on 30 meters by at least 3db. A total of five stations reported me on 40 meters, one in Arizona. Ten reported my 30 meter signal including W7ZI 1717 miles northeast in Oregon (15db) and VE7CC in British Columbia 1695mi who barely heard me at 7db. So I know I was radiating at least a little bit!
Since getting my Wolf River Coils TIA in January of 2019, I've had 47 contacts in 25 states using various configurations and with both the 102 inch whip and the 17 foot whip. It is a solid performer. If it were my only HF antenna I would have many enjoyable QSOs.
2020-02-01 After enjoying working with the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA with the two 24" extensions below the coil and the long whip set at 12' on top of the coil I got to wondering how much difference the coil settings made with the coil at the bottom vs. elevated. So I assembled it with just the coil and not the extensions and with the whip extended to its full length. So, using the coil as set yesterday I mounted it to the tripod and put the extended whip on top. I collapsed the length of the approximately the length of the coil until the resonant frequency matched that of the tests yesterday with the elevated coil. Pictures of the coil mounting for both tests and the data are shown below.
Contact Log with the extensions and 12 ft whip mounted.
so There is some change but not huge that adjusting for it is difficult. All the measurements were taken with my NanoVNA. When I then connected the antenna to my x5105 I got somewhat different readings but again not enough to make any operational difference. When the weather warms up and some of the snow melts I think I will do some more playing with my 17' vertical wire antenna and the QRPGuys three band vertical. They should have very similar behavior to this antenna.
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2020-01-31 Well, today I made one more change, hopefully an improvement to the WRC TIA antenna. I affixed banana plugs to all of my collars. So now I have two collars for both my Silver Bullet 1000 and Silver Bullet Mini. And, I used some of the leftover pigtail wire to attach a final banana plug at the very top of the mini coil effectively giving me possibility of presetting three bands for each coil using the whip only for one band and each of the collars for two other bands.
The picture shows the position of the two collars for 40 and 30 meters and the top pigtail for 20 meters. It is shown connected in the photo for 20 meters.
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This assumes that the whip is extended to 12 feet total and the two 24 inch extensions are below the coil. With my whip the extended length is 12 feet when the top eight sections are extended. The resulting overall length from the tripod to the tip of the whip is 17 feet, just right for a 20 meter quarter wave vertical. If anyone is interested The 30 meter collar tap measures 5uh and the 40 meter one measures 15uh.
So with just two collars I have a three band antenna! I tested it on air using my x5105 and made two contacts on 40 meters and one on 30. One of the 40 meter ones was SSB with a POTA station. For the life of me I couldn't get one on 20 meters even though several strong CW and SSB stations were on. Most disappointing was that k3y/6/k6elq in California could not hear me!
2020-01-30 This afternoon I had time to play with setting up and using the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA with the 17 foot whip and the modified radials as described below. My first test was to simply plug in and deploy the radials. Then I connected my 50 foot RG-8x feedline and mounted the 17 foot whip directly to the base without the loading coil and fully extended it. The photos below show the result. It was resonant with a great SWR at 14.05 mhz "right out of the box!" I made two contacts using my xiegu x5105 at five watts immediately. (That worked so well I'm puzzling over why I have had such difficulty with my DIY 17' wire vertical.)
After the above tests with the 17' whip alone, I mounted the two 24" extensions, added the loading coil to the top of them with the whip on top of the coil. I pulled out the top 8 sections of the long whip (which I measured afterwords as 12 feet) making the entire setup 17' long, same as the extended whip alone. SWR with the top collar right at the top of the loading coil was nearly identical on 20 meters as expected. I also played around with location of the second collar and found the setting to get a low SWR on 40 meters as well, using my NanoVNA first and the SWR plot function of the x5105 to fine tune it. SWR was below 1.5:1 across the entire 20 and 40 meters bands.
A side note, extending the whip when mounted on top of the coil and extensions is a bit complicated and precarious as the top of the first section of the whip is just shy of 8' off the ground! I had to extend it before screwing it onto the coil, a somewhat "floppy task" of its own. The thing is a bit Topsy-turvy with the coil up so high and the log whip on top so i had some coffee cans in the garage with ice melt in them to sit on the 12 inch tripod legs. Their longer legs would help. I'm guessing that in the field the whole thing needs to be guyed for stability.
I logged five QRP QSOs with both setups using both 20 and 40 meters in about 45 minutes, the most distant with K0RDS in Texas. I can't tell from these tests whether the center mounted coil improves performance or not, but I'm happy! and the sun is going down. Or more accurately daylight is going away, the sun never got through today!
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2020-01-29 After using the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA antenna for Winter Field Day this past Saturday with some success, I decided to invest a bit more in it. So I ordered their extender rods to make it into a center loaded vertical and their 210 inch (17ft) whip. I got the whip in part because I accidentally jerked the second section from the bottom section of the 102 inch one. I wrapped the joint with aluminum tape and it still works, thankfully. But it is not harder to store and transport. The 102" one is what I used for Winter Field Day.
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The other change I made today was to replace the ring connectors on the radial wires with gold plated brass banana plugs. to connect them I drilled three 5/32 holes in the tripod base. Now I can simply plug the banana into the tripod aluminum base, unwind the radials and I'm in business. I think that will make it easier to set up and take down.
I did a quick on-air check of the antenna using the longer whip but still bottom loaded and had a 599 40 meter QSO with K8UDH operating as K3y/0 470 miles west of here in Nebraska. I was using my xiegu x5105 at five watts so I'm pretty pleased. I ran out of time to do any further testing of it.
2020-01-24 Tomorrow and Sunday, January 25 & 26, 1:00pm CST to 1:00pm CST is Winter Field Day. I had not even considered "doing it" as it is winter here in southeastern Wisconsin. But it has actually warmed up into the 30's so I began thinking about it. When I read the rules carefully I realized that I could do it in my detached garage as an Outdoor station! The garage is more than 30 feet from the house and is unheated. So my thought is to set up on a makeshift table in the garage with the door open with either my xiegu x5105 or G90, powered by a battery. For an antenna, all my portable wire ones have been strung up in the trees of my back yard for several weeks as I've tweaked them so it is probably debatable whether they are permanent or not. But I've got this Wolf River Coils TIA in a bag in my shack, so why not set it up in the driveway?
Since I haven't had it out for quite a while I decided this afternoon to set it up and make sure it still works. Actually, I damaged the whip a while back so was a little concerned about it. I have WRC's dual collar mod so tuned the Silver Bullet Mini coil for both 40 and 20 meters using my NanoVNA. I also checked it out on air with my x5105. The SWR was less than 1.5:1 on both bands. I heard several s4 to s5 signals on 40 but couldn't get anyone to talk to me. Each time someone else stepped on me. And since I was outside on the sidewalk and it was starting to lightly drizzle, I gave up and came inside, a bit discouraged.
Then it occurred to me to check out the Reverse Beacon Network and see where my signal was heard, if anywhere.
As you can see from the chart I was heard! In Ohio, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Kansas, among other places. And the signal strength wasn't shabby in any of those. I'm sure at least some of these beacon stations have amazing antennas and setups which accounts for some of that, but at least I know it was radiating. Why the guys down south in Texas and Tennessee couldn't hear me I don't know. Maybe propagation wasn't great, although their signals were fairly good here. No matter. I still think I'll go for it tomorrow.
2019-11-14 Today I decided to "clean up" my installation by cutting a new speaker wire element. The result is shown in the three photos above. The original was patched together while tuning it with "scraps" of speaker wire. But first I measured the actual length of the radiator. It was 15-1/2 feet long and made from 16 gauge weather-warn RCA Speaker Wire. So I cut a new one from new 16 gauge RCA speaker wire. It too is 15-1/2 feet long. I sealed all the openings with shrink wrap and Liquid Tape. That seems short to me as a 20 meter 1/4 wave but the lead on the Wolf River Coil is about a foot long so that is probably about right. At any rate the SWR seems to think it is good. It measures 1.2:1 at 14.000 mhz and 1.3:1 at 14.350. That is about as good as your going to get one! On 40 meters it measures 1:1 at 7.0 and 1.5:1 at 7.3 mhz. Again, that's pretty good. Haven't' checked it on-air yet as the bands seem pretty dead, especially 20 meters.
Just completed five QSOs on 20 and 40 meters using this antenna. Most distant was with a station in CA on 20 meters, 1763. Second best, 1223 miles, also on 20 was with a POTA station in Utah. contacts on 40 were from 300 to 600 miles.
One final observation. I have three antennas up right now: my mfj-1984mp 40-10 EFHW as a sloper; QRPGuys 40-10 EFHW as an inverted vee and this vertical. They come into the shack to a switch so I can easily change from one to the other by simply turning the switch. This afternoon I can tell almost no difference in received signals between them. I don't think that is particularly typical of how they work but suggests the difference between them may not be not huge.
2019-11-12 Several weeks ago I ordered the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet Mini loading coil to replace the Silver Bullet 1000. I realized that I'll seldom if ever tune 80 meters which is the main difference between the two. Then I also ordered their Dual Collar kit which allows you to tune up two bands ahead of time so to change you simply move the jumper from one to the other. It's really slick. I set my collars for 20 and 40 meters, the primary bands I'll likely use most often.
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In the meantime I also got from QRPGuys their Tri-Band vertical. After playing with it successfully the idea hit me that I could replace the Wolf River whip with a seventeen foot piece of wire and have a 1/4 vertical on 20 meters and using the second collar, tune it pre-tune 40 meters as well. So today (temp in the teens!) I cut an approximately 17 foot length of speaker wire, put a lug on the end of it and using the wolf river Silver bullet Mini, set it up. I used my 20 ft Wonderpole to support the wire.
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It took many trips into the cold back yard, through the snow to get it tuned but now it works! The SWR on 40 meters is 1:1. On 20 meters it is about 1.3:1. I'm using the three 33' radials provided with the original Silver Bullet 1000. I may play around with adjusting their lengths to reduce the SWR on 20 - next Spring!
I had two QSOs on 20 meters with it, one, CW, to a station in California 1763 miles west the other to the Meritime Mobile Net control in Oklahoma on SSB. I'll try 40 meters tonight and see how that goes.
2019-03-03 For the record, I've completed thirteen QSOs with this antenna as of today. All at 5 watts on my end. They ranged in distance from 190 miles to 1284 miles. Nine were on 40 meters, three on 20 meters and one on 30 meters. All but one were using CW. All of this in the dead of winter with a semi-portable setup. That is, the antenna was out on the sidewalk in the snow and ice while I sat comfortably inside with my battery powered radio at our dining room table, tethered to the antenna with about 35 feet of RG-174 coax. Oh, I just remembered that the first contact as explained below was with the antenna and battery powered radio in our living room so was even more "semi" portable!
Radial Lengths
2019-03-04 We hit a toasty high of plus ten degrees here in southeast Wisconsin today after an overnight low of about minus six! Winter is being very persistent. But I wanted to play with the Silver Bullet 1000 a bit more and work on finding the places to mark the "ruler" I've added to it described below. I kept my trips outside brief and no more than necessary!
I noticed that with the three supplied 33ft radials deployed full length I measured a 1:1 SWR on both 40 and 20 meters. But on 30 meters, 2 to 2.5:1 was the best SWR I could get. It occurred to me that the issue might be the length of the radials. So I shortened the radials to about 25 feet (an estimate) by winding the ends of the radials back onto the winders eight turns. The SWR dropped to about 1.3:1. So clearly the radials should be some length divisible by the wavelength of the antenna at a given frequency for optimal SWR.
The supplied 33ft radials are roughly 1/8 wavelength on 80 meters, 1/4 wavelength on 40 and 1/2 wavelength on 20 but "nothing" on 30 meters! I guess I'm not surprised but this reinforces that. Makes me wonder about the optimal length of the counterpoise for other antennas such as the 35 ft. end fed and half wave end fed antennas.
Band Setting Hack
My DIY Band marking ruler with temporary band markings on the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA. The collar is set for 40 meters.
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2019-03-02 One of the inconveniences of this antenna is figuring out where to set the collar for each band. If, for example you are using it on 20 meters and want to change to 40, you will likely run back and forth between your rig and the antenna many frustrating times making first larger then smaller adjustments until you finally get zeroed in.
I've seen several ideas including marking the coil with a felt tip marker to help with this challenge. Thinking about it, the idea came to me to attach a plastic "ruler" to the top of the coil form that will hang alongside the coil with markings for the band positions.
I found a bright red, tough but flexible plastic file folder lying around so I cut a ten inch strip 3/4" wide. I attached that with a 3/8" standoff to the coil form above the coil by drilling and tapping a 6-32 hole.
Finally, I used a black felt tip marker to temporarily mark the collar positions for 20, 30, 40 and 80 meters. I'll experiment a while before adding permanent markings. I want to make sure I have them where I want them. But my first impression with on-air tuning is that it works well.
Using this setup with just one trip to the antenna, I was able to change bands from 20m to 40m. That enabled me to have a QRP contact with K3SEW in Pennsylvania who had just finished a QSO. He was 599+ and gave me a 559. QSB was extreme and conditions deteriorated quickly but we exchanged the critical info before things fell apart on us.
The photo shows the "ruler" attached to the coil with the collar set for the 40 meter band, as I had it for the QSO with K3SEW.
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The other two photos show a bit more detail of how I attached the ruler. They also show how I wrap up and secure the feedline and radials for transport without taking the antenna apart. I especially like the DIY wire winders with the radials wound on them in a figure 8 wind which keeps them from tangling, a major hassle with all wire used for antennas.
Playing in a winter wonderland
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2019-02-13 I set up the Silver Bullet almost exactly as pictured at right again today (11:00am) and connected it to my x5105. Outside temperature about 17f and everything is snow covered, from 7" two nights ago and 3" last night.
Tried 20 meters. A couple signals but no go. Switched to 40 meters and landed one QSO with a station in Indiana (my sig 569, his 559), just a couple hundred miles. Band noise was very low but not many signals on. Inside where I sat at the end of my RG174 feedline, it was 70!
This afternoon, around 2:00 I had three more QSOs, one on 40mtrs and two on 20 meters. One of the 20 meter ones was with a station in NM, 1300 miles west. He gave me a 579 and was 589 in here. I like this semi-portable stuff!
2019-02-06 I enjoy watching YouTube videos and reading posts about portable QRP ventures. But here in SE Wisconsin I'm too much of a wimp to do that right now, even though I have all the toys. Last night we got about an inch of freezing rain and sleet. Temperature is hovering in the mid 20s f. So today I did another semi-portable venture. I was rewarded with three QRP CW QSOs, one each on 20, 30 and 40 meters. The 20 meter one was in New Mexico, 1000 miles. The 40 meter one was with another QRP station in Florida, also about 1000 miles. 35 ft of RG174 coax allowed me to be inside, but in the true spirit of portable I was using my x5105's internal battery! So I felt like I was portable!
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Silver Bullet 1000 set up on the sleet covered sidewalk for Feb 6 and 13, 2019 QRP QSOs.
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2019-02-04 I just can't avoid giving into the temptation to do "semi-portable" operations. So, this afternoon I set the Silver Bullet 1000 TIA up on the front sidewalk again and spread the three radials across the fast-melting snow in the yard. It was 41 degrees.
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Then I set up my xiegu x5105 QRP rig on the dining room table with the valentine decorations, and had a go. First on 40 meters, I had a CW QSO with a station in Pennsylvania. That one wasn't real good as signals were really poor. I got his details but not sure if he got mine.
Next I tuned the antenna up on 20 meters, which simply required moving the tuning collar almost to the top of the coil. SWR was perfect!
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After tuning around a while I decided to heed the suggestion by VK3YE in his book Minimum QRP by tuning to the 20 meter QRP calling frequency of 14.060 and started calling CQ. After about five calls WA5DSS came back. From 1063 miles he gave me a 569. He was a 579 in here with fairly deep and slow QSB. He was also running five watts but into a beam. Thanks Bill!! We had a solid copy twenty minute rag chew! My semi-portable outing was a success!
2019-02-02 Well it warmed up 60 degrees from yesterday morning to 35 degrees this morning! What a welcome change. Since it is so balmy, I decided to set up my new Silver 1000 TIA antenna on the sidewalk between the walls of snow, with the three 33ft radials sprawled our across the snow and see what it might do. With the whip fully extended it only took a couple adjustments of the tuning collar to get a low SWR at 7.258, the MidCars frequency.
Joe, KC9YTC in Indiana was booming in at 59 so when he called for stations I gave him a call. I was using my X5105 5w transceiver. He came back and gave me a 57 signal report! Wow, was I happy! It was about 9:30am CST. Splatter from stations at 7.06 caused us both problems but we concluded a successful contact. The pictures above show the antenna setup, tuning collar position, SWR sweep, rig setup, KC9YTC's signal level and the antenna and counterpoise all ready for the next deployment! My observations from this experiment?
Observations
- The antenna can be set up quickly, probably about ten minutes. I did do some prep time by attaching the radials and vertical whip prior to taking it outside, so perhaps 15 to 20 minutes total. The integrated tripod is really convenient and stable.
- Tuning it up is fairly easy. I found the best way is to guess where the collar will need to be which will be much easier after gaining experience with it. Then tune the receiver until you find a peak or near peak noise level. At that point the X5105's SWR analyzer function really shines. Just hit the SWR button, adjust it to sweep 5 khz and pay attention to the direction of the sweep which will indicate whether the best SWR is higher or lower in frequency. Then make changes in the collar position until the resonant point is where you need it to be.
- I tend to think of verticals as a compromise antenna since they radiate in all directions and having a low take-off angle making them better for distant than closer end stations. So I was a bit surprised by the strength of Joe's signal given he is just under 300 miles southeast. W0UZR 400 miles northwest in Minnesota was also very strong. Other stations checking into the net were all over the place signal strength wise.
- With just one QSO I really can't conclude much about the antenna's performance but it appears to work well. That's not surprising given my very happy experience with the very similar design Little Tarheel antenna on my car. The antenna is not the lightest one for portable use at 53 oz (3-1/3 lbs) and is bulkier than some of my stealth portable antennas. but for just about anything other than longer distance backpacking, it looks like a winning combination of convenience, performance and weight/bulk. I'm excited about it.
Windproofing
2019-01-31 The temperatures here in SE Wisconsin are still ridiculously low, (-25 at my house overnight) so no outdoor trials of my just acquired Silver Bullet 1000 TIA. But I have been tinkering with it. One concern I have is that with the twelve inch tripod legs and a 10" whip attached it might be top heavy in a windy location. I have a couple guy rope collars for use with my push up fishing poles for use with my end fed, trap, fan and link inverted vee antennas so I decided to come up with an easy way to use one of those collars when needed. My solution, pictured below is to push a 3/8 inch rubber grommet over the coupling at the top of the Silver Bullet 1000 coil. My collar then sits on top of that grommet and should hold the tripod firmly in place without interfering with the normal operation of the coil. That allows me to utilize the collar and guy ropes I already have without any modification to either the collar or the antenna. And the only cost was the grommet, just under $4 with tax. Seems like a win!
First touch
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2019-01-28 Several weeks ago I came across a video by K8MRD on YouTube using the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA antenna on a POTA (Parks On The Air) activation. He made the interesting point that though he likes to use a speaker wire inverted vee on such outings, when the ground is frozen, that is less user friendly. I was captured by the antenna as looked very similar to my Little Tarheel, minus the motorized tuning! One of its appeals is that it comes with its own tripod making it a self contained free standing antenna package. I've played with portable verticals before, building a Pac-12 vertical several years ago. Overall I liked it but mine was way too flimsy and hard to tune with my home made coils, etc.. When I thought about trying to use it for Field Day this past June the aluminum rods, steel couplings and brass bolts had "stuff" growing on them and I couldn't get good electrical connections without a lot of work.
I ordered a Silver Bullet 1000 TIA a few days ago which came today. The collapsible whip seems sturdy but I was concerned that several of the sections move quite easily making me wonder whether wind battering it might cause it to slip a bit. I suspect after you use it a while and get a little dust on it things will be fine. Neither of these things are big concerns, just observed. Also, the tuning collar on the coil is kind of hard to move but that keeps it from being accidentally moved. Overall I am pleased with it.
The weather is far from human-friendly here in southeast Wisconsin right now so it'll likely be a while before I get to check it out but I'm impressed with it physically and am anxious to give it a go. In the mean time I'll go back to my trusty old G5RV and have some CW and SSB QSOs! I may even hook up my magnetic loop from time to time as well just to keep my portable operating dreams alive.
After looking at the Silver Bullet standing in the corner for a few hours, I just couldn't resist. So I set the antenna up in our high ceiling living room with just one of the three supplied radial wires attached and using my Xiego x5105's antenna analyzer was able to tune it to a 1:1 SWR on 40, 30 and 20 meters. Hand capacitance was a real issue but otherwise it tuned well.
2019-01-29 This afternoon I just couldn't stand it any longer so once again I set up the the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA antenna in our living room. This time I attached all three radial wires as best I could. One stretched across three rooms to its full 33 ft length. The others I just unfurled as far as I could in two other directions. They were each probably about ten feet long. I left the coil as I had it last evening when playing with it on 40 meters and pushed the whip up to the ceiling, about nine feet. My Xiego x5105 antenna analyzer showed a 1:1 SWR at about 7.02mhz! The SWR plot is shown in the photo at right.
So just for fun I tuned around the band and heard K3Y/0 calling CQ on 7.051. It took a couple times and many repeats but he heard me and we logged a contact. he gave me a 339 and he was a 579 from 424 miles. It Works! And I'm sure with the radials stretched out as they should be it would work even better. The hand capacitance effects I noticed last evening were not present today. I'm guessing that is thanks to all three radials being attached.
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My station for the contact on 40 meters with K3Y/0 in Lenexa Kansas. X5105 at 5 watts, Silver River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA and poorly deployed radials in our living room!
SWR reading of the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 TIA set up indoors with poorly deployed radials.
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Now I really can't wait 'till the weather warms up a bit. Tonight it is supposed to hit -28 or so! And tomorrow clear up to about -10. So it won't be tested outdoors in the next two days for sure!