Hello, everyone.

Thanks to those who have responded so far to my quiry about an alternate 
antenna for my HF set-up at the RV.

One possibility I've always been curious about is something called the Yoyo 
Antenna.

Here's a little blurb on it from an earlier Handiham e-letter.

Has anyone ever used one of these things?

I can't find current prices from the URL listed, so if anyone has info on 
that score, please send it along.

Thanks, and 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ

Maybe this would be a good spot to mention that Bill Lauterbach, WA8MEA, of

DWM Communications, has kindly donated three of his famous YO-YO-TENNA

antennas to the Handiham System, and we plan to give them a workout at the

upcoming Minnesota Radio Camp in late August. The Yo-Yo's look like the toy

of the same name, but they are really serious portable antenna systems that

are perfect for quick deployment anywhere you want to do some HF operation.

Like a yo-yo, the antenna is wound in a circular plastic case. The

single-wire version has one round storage container, and the dipole systems

have one of these "yo-yo's" for each leg of the antenna. You set the dipole

up by fixing the center insulator to a center support, such as the

Worldradio portable telescoping fiberglass mast (I picked one of those up at

Dayton), and then running the legs of the dipole out to end supports in

inverted-vee configuration. Feed with 50 Ohm coax, and you are good to go!

When you are ready to pack the system back up, you wind the wire back into

the plastic yo-yo cases by simply turning a hand crank on each case. Check

Bill's website out at:

http://www.qth.com/dwm/.



In case you are curious about the Worldradio telescoping mast, I paid $20

for it, a dollar a foot, and you can find it (model SD-20 mast) at:

http://www.wr6wr.com/.



Pat, WA0TDA Handiham Manager