Looking for an HF antenna I can use at the girlfriends. Lots of limitations; no garden, 3 storey building with no roof access, town house, no front garden, and a row of trees directly behind the patio. Permanent antenna is out of the question.

The super stick appears to fit the bill in terms of being portable, lightweight, easily erected and dismantled, comes with tripod and mast, an reasonably priced. The question is... does it work reasonably well?

I know it's a compromise, I know it is electrically short, etc. the reviews seem contradictory. Anyone here have direct experience of it?

Good little antennas imo BUT you can always put a bigger whip on it ,lengthen the lower mast and have the coil higher up the antenna etc .. But out the box they work pretty well anyway .. If you do get one DON'T tighten the thumb screw that holds the coil sleeve in place for tuning it will just snap . They only need pinching up lightly to hold position ..

BTW is she the right girl if you want to play radio while round there surely doctors and nurses should still be on the cards

Intriqued - perhaps you can elaborate on the last sentence?

edit: Read that as "she is" as opposed to "is she" Anyway, its ordered from ML, should be here tomorrow, and I set and listen to G callsigns ignoring me. Least, that's what I'll blame the deafening silence on!

Can never remember wanting to play with radio's while I was visiting my girlfriend

I had plenty of contacts on mine , all qrp .. 80 wasn't very good but then you can't expect it to on such a small antenna but 40 worked well and higher up the bands even better ..

It gives me something to do when she's doing the dishes, washing, drying, re-decorating, sanding down the dining room table and waxing it, etc. And as netball isn't televised yet....

Let us know what you think of the antenna ..

it will give me a chance to use the FT-890 I picked up a year ago... and the FT-897. Why oh why can they not use a standard 3pin or fig-8 power lead though :(

I've got one.
Not too bad performance wise. The bigger the top whip you can get on it the better.
With a good radial system it will work as good as or better than most mobile screwdriver antennas.
Found that the build quality is not as good as say the Buddipole, the aluminium seems lower grade and 'softer'.
Mine is the older version (chapstick?) so that may of changed. Threaded aluminium studs into aluminium sockets soon wear down!

I now tend to use a G4TPH magloop when /A.

Always worth checking the antenna 'Shootouts' on this site whenever considering a portable antenna:
http://hfpack.com/antennas/

73
Phil M0ION

Well, it arrived Tuesday (many thanks to Kev at ML).

Had a quick shuftie at it Tues night, put it together and put the FT-890 and 897 on it in turn.

Initial impressions; a tad noisy, but I've only been able to play with it indoors. 'Indoors' is behind 2ft thick stone walls and a slate roof, in a dip between the scar and the farmland 'next door', so I wasn't expecting much. Pleasantly surprised even given low expectations. Had another listen today, still indoors as the winds outside are gusting at 40mph, and I didn't fancy doing a Mary Poppins impression over Kendal. The only real drawback in terms of construction is the tripod; the legs screw into the baseplate at an angle, and are finicky to fit. More worryingly, they use a fine thread, which I can see shearing or threading with prolonged use.

Performance-wise, too early to evaluate yet as I need to use it outside - and until the weather abates that isn't happening!