I looked into the various commercially available portable antennas. I have often been very critical of these antennas (which I've blabbed about here on PH). After reading up on them, I've changed my stance, a little.
They actually work fairly well for what they are. My rant is that they are quite expensive for what they give you. The prices they are charging for some of these antennas will take your breath away!
I really liked the DX Engineering TW, but it would cost over $850 to get what I need for 40-10 meter coverage. Jeeze dudes, that's more than I paid for my FT-817 radio and the LDG antenna tuner to go with it!
The Chameleon "tactical dipole" is very well thought out, but I refuse to pay close to $500 for a dipole, even if it is a really cool one. The CHA-Micro costs a comparatively reasonable $211. The problem: For two-hundred-and-then-some all you get is sixty feet of wire and a coil, which I assume is a UNUN. And you still need an antenna tuner.
Who the hell actually buys this stuff? And do they know they are being royally screwed? Of course they don't. They're all "zero-to-Extras". Maybe they are disgustingly rich and don't mind dropping five-large on a dipole?
If I knew 20 years ago there were people out there willing to lay out that kind of dough for a basic wire antenna, by now I'd be the Bill Gates of ham radio.
So I dug around on line and in my numerous antenna books looking for a simple, cheap, effective DIY solution. I decided on the time-tested random long wire.
I came up with three configurations: One with a counterpoise, one without, and one that uses a UNUN. My total cost was about $50. Even if I add in the cost of the antenna tuner, the whole package is still well under anything else out there.
Initial tests were very positive. I made many domestic DX contacts on 40 and 20 meters running only 5 watts. I still need to do more testing before I can sign off on the project and call it a success, but so far I'm very encouraged. After an unusually mild fall it's starting to get cold for real here, so additional field testing will require some determination and a lot of bundling up.
The entire antenna rolls up nicely, weighs very little, and fits in the back pack with all my other stuff. I still use clunky “portable” tripods and masts to string it up on, but in a true survival situation I could leave that stuff behind and string the wire from a tree or whatever is around.
I think I've found a portable antenna I can live with and doesn't cost more than the radio its plugged into.