In his talk at Hamcon, Wayne claimed that coax or other feedline is not always necessary. Whats up with that?
During field trials, we did not use any type of feedline. The vertical radiator was connected directly to the center conductor of the KX1’s antenna jack (via a BNC->binding post adapter), and tossed into a tree. One or two counterpoise wires of 16-24 feet were then laid on the ground. This is safe and practical at QRP power levels, and eliminates the need to carry coax, baluns, etc. It also avoids coax losses, which can be significant. At 14 MHz, some brands of RG174010033favored by hikers for its light weight010033have a loss of over 3 dB per 100′. Old coax that’s been kinked and wrapped dozens of times may be worse.
