I really like the idea of having a portable HF radio setup that I can pack into a small bag and setup anywhere and it would be great if I had something at home that I could use as a HF antenna (Without having to setup the HF antenna). So I wanted to see if I might be able to use other metal objects as a good enough antenna. One of them actually worked! (Kinda)

Swapping the laptop for a tablet

In my radio rig post I mentioned I was using one of the kids’ old school laptops running WSJT-X for FT8. It works, but it is slow, the battery life isn’t great, and it is one more bulky thing to pack.

I recently upgraded to a Lenovo 8.7” tablet and wanted to see if maybe that could do it. After some research I found FT8AF which does FT8 on a phone or tablet. I connected it to my radio using the USB cable which does both audio and rig control, and it works a treat!

The tablet sits nicely next to the radio and shows the decodes on a map, so I don’t need GridTracker running alongside it either. The whole setup is now small enough to fit in the tough case without having to leave anything behind.

The Weekend Experiment

The X6100 has a built-in ATU, and I have seen videos on YouTube of people using all sorts of things as antennas using various Xiegu radios. A lot of people say it will tune almost anything, so I decided to put that to the test. The plan was simple, grab a clip lead, attach it to the centre of the antenna lead, and start clipping onto things.

I used my HF Range Planner to see what type of coverage I might get.

First up was the Colorbond fence. It is a long run of metal, so I figured it might have a chance.

This worked really well to receive, I was getting signals from around the world no problem, but could never make a contact.

Then I moved onto the patio roof. I clipped onto the bracket on one of the posts that holds up the roof, which gave me the whole steel frame and roof sheeting to work with.

Did it work?

Sort of! The ATU managed to find a match, and I was able to make 1 contact into New Zealand using the patio roof on 15m. It isn’t exactly DX, but for something that was never meant to be an antenna, I will take it.

What’s next

This was a lot of fun, and I think it shows that you don’t always need a proper antenna to get on the air. That said, it didn’t beat a proper antenna. I will keep looking for things that I can use and report back.