There has been a lot of discussion about assorted "go box" or portable antennas lately.
I got the idea for this post after receiving a few private messages both on this website and elsewhere asking for help with the topic. I thought I would do a "mind dump" and just rattle off some ideas all in one place.
What follows is going to be more of an editorial than a completely technical/factual piece. Antennas are a very complex and sometimes controversial topic, so it's ok if some of you don't agree. This isn't politics or religion. It's all good.
Commercially made portable/backpack antennas (Buddipole, Chameleon, etc) come with a few very consequential tradeoffs. The small size and light weight is the the big selling point for these antennas. What you give up is efficiency. A lot of it. You're going to run high SWR most of the time. For many hams the solution is an antenna tuner. Going that route has important considerations:
1. Antenna tuners add weight and space to your setup, partially negating the "portable" aspect of the antenna that you were attracted by in the first place.
2. Antenna tuners add complexity and are another point of failure.
3. Antenna tuners work by "lying" to your radio. As far as your rig is concerned the match is awesome. But all you did was move the problem to the other side of the tuner. Antenna tuners do not "fix" inefficient antennas, they only convert them into an acceptable 50Ω load for your transmitter. All the original inefficiencies are still in effect.
4. Antenna tuners are an added expense to what is already a costly option.
The honest truth is that no one would choose this type of antenna but for the light weight and small size. They don't have much else going for them. If that is the main priority for you, then consider one more thing....
Commercially made portable/backpack antennas are like Swiss Army knives: They can do all things sort-of well, but no one thing exceptionally well. You could carve a Thanksgiving turkey with a Swiss Army knife, but would you really want to? You would if you also needed to open cans and turn screws and were allowed just one tool for everything. Portable antennas are like that. Most are multi-band, which is great if you are actually going to
use all those bands. But if you tend to operate on the same one or two bands most of the time (in other words, you don't care about the can opener)...the trade is probably not worth it.
Gimmick antennas: Oh my, there are all kinds of goofy loops and curls out there that take up very little space and look like a prop from a cheezy 1960's science fiction movie. All of them work to some degree, but all fall far short on their promises. The less it looks like an antenna, the more suspicious you should be. There are no miracles.
My personal portable gear includes homebrew dipole antennas for 40 and 20 that are adjusted so well, I can run without a tuner and never go above 1.5 SWR anywhere on the phone band. I seldom use other HF bands, so an antenna that is only four feet long and works on 160-6 but has shit SWR doesn't impress me
It does not help that there is a generation of hams out there who have never made a simple dipole nor could they if asked to. The dumbing down of ham radio makes conditions ripe for manufacturers' marketing hustles. I knew more as a Novice 35 years ago than most Extras do now...but that's a topic for another post.
So ask yourself the question: Do you want a versatile antenna with compromised performance (Swiss Army knife), or a specialized antenna with excellent performance (carving knife)? There is no right or wrong response, but you can set yourself up for a big buzzkill if you choose an antenna without first answering the question.
Hope this is helpful to someone. Additional discussion and questions always welcome.