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Its possible to use mobile type antennas portable.I have used a pro am type whip mounted on a modified camera tripod using a counterpoise cut for a quarter wave on the band of chioce. In my case i used a 40m pro am with a single quarter wave counterpoise. NOTE i did not try with a counterpoise of random length over a quarter wave long nor have i experimented with using more than one as radials. The antenna tuned very easily and took a matter of minutes to set up and be on air.
ABOVE is my modified tripod. It took very little effort to mod and simply needed the camera grip taking off and one hole drilling to accept the sockets for the antenna/coax which were the S0239/ant socket from an old boot mount.This tripod extends to near 4 foot and because the legs are indipendently adjustable sitting it on uneven surfaces isn't a problem.BELOW you can see another way i tried mounting the antenna. I found on windy days the tripod especially when fully extended could be a little unsteady so i came up with this idea to use a T connector and 2 PL259 antenna sockets . As you can see the 2 sockets along with the T connector make a good feedpoint/antenna socket.The bottom section is simply half an old pro am whip stripped and used as a stake. This makes the antenna slightly more stable although it does bend around a bit in the wind.This is easily overcome using some guy string and a few ground pegs.Simple and cheap.This way is easier to transport than the tripod and you could carry a full set of pro am whips along with the stake in a thin plastic tube with a carry strap.
Modified ATX antenna
I'v hit on the idea of trying to make the atx more efficient . Now the ATX is meant to to fit straight onto the 817/703 and its main appeal is all band coverage and very small footprint.Efficiency will be at best very low especially on the lower bands. I decided to strip a pro am whip and re wire with a simple 4 foot length of wire with the ATX connected to this turning it into a center loaded 8 foot antenna. This will make it an all together more efficient antenna even with just these small changes.
pics and results to come
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