Frank's HAM RADIO blog: HF antenna in a pocket

I belive in common sense. Antennas for HF needs to be as long as they can be. Okay, but what if you have no room in your bag, no chance to erect antennas on the top of your house or even on your balcony?

Many years ago I bought a small "miracle shit" antenna in UK. The performance was shocking.
There is a nice place near Manchester called Peel Tower Hill. Climbing up there with a short stick and an FT817 gifted me hundreds of contacts.

The antenna is easy as a piece of nail. Just a coil with taps, a PL or BNC connector on one end, while a telescopic whip on the other. Few meters of random counterpoise is needed to make it better.
All the stations I heard on 40 and 20m came back to me even using QRP power.

Later I gave it to my friend Gabor HA7MAC to walk with it. Few months ago he gave it back saying "you need it more...". My uBITX was happy with the antenna. A real backpack setup...