Minimax antennas - yet another "stealth design."

[VK4WDM]

I noticed an ad on Ebay for the "MiniMax antenna." An "Cap L" design by Tom Brent KE4LH and only 1m tall. Probably not going to be very efficient being that short but could be worth looking at in situations where a "stealth" antenna is required. 20. 15 and 10m models are available.

Anybody tried one?

73

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK3YE]

I noticed an ad on Ebay for the "MiniMax antenna." An "Cap L" design by Tom Brent KE4LH and only 1m tall. Probably not going to be very efficient being that short but could be worth looking at in situations where a "stealth" antenna is required. 20. 15 and 10m models are available.

Anybody tried one?

Oddly I couldn't find any reviews on eHam so it must be fairly new (or fairly limited distribution).

However there's a bit on QRZ at

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?31 ... discussion and

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?32 ... nna-Design

I note that the supplier URL referred to above, ie http://minimaxantennas.com, is no longer active.

Small antennas is an area where many claims are made. Something may have fantastic claims made but a few years later nothing more is heard. Does anyone remember the cross-field or EH antennas that excited us all about 10-15 years ago?

When an over-enthusiastic miniature antenna salesman with experience meets an enthusiastic but space-restricted ham with money, the salesman leaves with the money, and the ham gets the experience.

My experience is any small antenna will need to be unusually good before it beats a well-built 90cm diameter magnetic loop on 20 - 10 metres, which in itself is a pretty good 'stealth' antenna.

[I2NDT]

the guy who designed this antenna (KE4LH) has a new web-site: http://minigunantennas.com/
he has got also e VK distributor: http://minigunantennas.com/internationa ... utors.html
check also: http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from ... -MAX+MM-40
this antenna looks like the "Micro Vert": http://www.qsl.net/dl7jv/e.kap.htm.

Best 73
de
i2NDT Claudio

PS
I have no connections with the above mentioned gentlemen!

[VK3YE]

the guy who designed this antenna (KE4LH) has a new web-site: http://minigunantennas.com/

Thanks Claudio.

Doesn't exactly inspire credibility does it?

I particularly liked:

If you live in a antenna restricted area, this is your answer to getting on the air. And put out a signal that rivals dipoles, not the 4 or 6 S unit drop by using other shortened antennas.

'Rivals dipoles?' What sort of dipole? A 144 MHz dipole fed with 14 MHz could be a good reference as almost any other contraption would radiate better. Alternatively, if it's just rained, loading up two snail trails on your outdoor deck could be another reference. To be fair though one could sprinkle salt to improve conductivity.

'4 or 6 S unit drop?' 18 - 24 dB? Perfectly credible, especially if your boring reference antenna is tested during the week, while your exciting breakthrough discovery prototype is used during a contest weekend.

'Other shortened antennas' ? A miracle whip, dummy load, or 144 MHz rubber duck?

Don't you just love it when the only way to sell a product is to set up a straw man and demonise the (unspecified) opposition? Rather than doing the hard slog of taking multiple readings over a sufficient range, with properly functioning reference antennas, correcting for nearby metal objects and possible feedline radiation. A pity that after the latter tests you may no longer have a saleable product. A kilowatt dummy load filled with snake oil might radiate as sweet.

In contrast, the antennas recommended on this site look much more useful http://www.antennex.com/shack/Jul05/sell.html

[VK4WDM]

The sad/bad thing is that that a heck of a lot of hams are having to go off the air when they end up in situations where proper antennas are not allowed. How many ad's do you see "selling all my gear - no antennas are allowed at new QTH." I know of three people in this area with that problem.

So there is certainly the need for "stealth" type antennas that do work, so I guess we should be pleased that experimenting is still going on.

73

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK2AVR]

Don't you just love it when the only way to sell a product is to set up a straw man and demonise the (unspecified) opposition? Rather than doing the hard slog of taking multiple readings over a sufficient range, with properly functioning reference antennas, correcting for nearby metal objects and possible feedline radiation.

That's a whole lot of work! It's much easier to make sweeping, optimistic statements that are vague enough to be defended if/when someone buys one without doing their homework and isn't happy with the performance.

IMO the fact that people buy it says more about the buyer than the seller. Clearly they don't understand or just allow themselves to get swept up in the excitement of the whole idea.

Limited space can be done, it's hard and you sometimes have to wait for favourable band conditions but you can operate without an antenna farm.