What use is an F-call?

As you might know or recall, I don't have HF at my QTH. So far my DX activities have been using other people's equipment and using my 12m squid-pole when I'm either camping or set-up at some waterside location. This seriously curtails my activities and I'm keen to do something about it.

Over the past few weeks I've been looking at different options, it's a process that everyone goes through, and sometimes you come out of it having gained some experience. I'm not shy in asking questions, but the replies are sometimes a little more difficult. I've heard the "try it and see" reply many times, and while that's fine if you have a money tree in the back yard, that's not really going to work for me.

I've also been advised to home-brew a solution. While I'm all for that, I've built a few minor things; if I add up the money I've spent on home-brewing antennas, I'm not doing so well. It's $5 here, $2.50 there, a roll of wire, a pole or two, sockets, plugs, rope, you name it, it's in my shack. I reckon I've spent more than enough money for the moment on building things that don't quite work as advertised. Of course I'll be the first to admit that I've learnt heaps from doing it, but at the moment, all I really want is to get on air and make some contacts.

I hit on the idea of getting a heavy-duty boot-lip mount and using the same mount for HF and VHF/UHF. I realise that I won't be able to use the same antenna, or that any antenna that claims to work all bands is likely to be pretty inefficient, so I'm getting geared up for having several mono-band whips and exchange them as I need to.

I'm not expecting to operate while I'm on the move, but I would like to be able to turn my engine on and drive away once I've had enough. My squid-pole prevents that, since packing up a 12m fibreglass pole with ground wires is not a trivial affair.

I looked at screw-driver antennas, contraptions that physically move bits around to tune the antenna. The only one that everyone agrees works is a hulking big Codan antenna. If I have a truck or a 4WD, that would work great, but my little Holden Cruze is not suited to such a monster. The Yaesu ATAS120 antennas seem to be pretty fragile and I'm guessing the dust on a dirt road would seriously affect it. I saw several others, but so far none of these stick out.

I'm leaning towards a 10, a 15, a 40 and an 80m whip, four in all, centre loaded, 2.2m long each. I don't yet know how they pack away, if I have to re-tune them every time I put them together, or even if they are built to be dismantled. They're made by Diamond, but the jury is still out on whether this is an actual usable, useful solution.

The journey continues.

What experience do you have in your adventures?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB