Hi Tom, congrats on finishing another teaching year.  Although I've not used
that particular antenna, I have successfully used the Super Antennas MP1,
which is, in effect, a sort of "manual screw driver type antenna."  You
should be able to basically tune for loudest, best, "received signal to
noise sounds on any particular band,   for a ball park start, then try your
swr meter, and tweek with the other tuner if needed.  If you can hang a wire
counterpoise of some sort, it will likely help your operation somewhat, but
you should be able to get some operational fun and effectiveness even
without it.  Keep in touch, I'll be interested to hear your progress, Danny
Dyer, Wb4idu.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 11:39 AM
Subject: working with a Predator Screw-driver-type antenna


> Hi, everyone.
>
> Well, my teaching semester at the University has ended, which means that
> Summer can't be too far behind.  And, with Summer comes another round of
> experimenting with HF antenna arrangements for the RV travel trailer my
XYL
> and I recently purchased.
>
> I have decided (hopefully wisely) to try a screw-driver type antenna
called
> the Predator, to see how that will work for me on HF.  I am going to mount
> the antenna system on a pipe that has been welded to the spare tire holder
> on the back of the trailer.  I am doing this simply because my XYL and I
> have found it difficult to string long wires and dipoles at most camp
sites.
> I also had worked with the Buddipole modular antenna system last year with
> rather limited success, due to the fact that that particular antenna
system
> turned out to involve multiple combinations of tap and coil settings,
making
> it rather "user unfriendly" for a blind ham like me.
>
> As I get and try this screw-driver type antenna, I am thinking of several
> questions.
>
> What would be the best strategy for adjusting the antenna system so as to
> get the best SWR?  I have a talking SWR meter from Remy Simard that should
> help.  I assume I could put the rig on low power, and simply work the
> antenna up or down until I get the best possible SWR.  Has anyone ever
> worked with one of these screw-driver-type antennas?  If so, does this
> strategy make sense, or do you have other suggestions?
>
>
> I also have an LDG AT11MP auto-tuner that I use with my portable HF
set-up,
> but I would think that that wouldn't be usable in this case, since, in
> effect, the screw-driver antenna is already a tuner, and you'd then have
two
> tuners working against each other.
>
> Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated here.  I hope I haven't
> bitten off more than I can chew, but I guess it's worth a try.
>
> Best 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ, Big Rapids, MI
>