Wolf River Coils TIA (#952)

I received the Wolf River Coils TIA (Take It Along) antenna, which I purchased with channel funds. I will unbox it, review it, and begin to test it. Watch to learn more about this nice portable antenna. A followup video, Ask Dave #987, tests it further and compares it to a full-size vertical.

Edited and Videographed by Aidan Jakeman

Twitter: @dcasler

[jimbragg]

I purchased the MEGA TIA for POTA and the first time I used it made a couple of QSOs with Spain and several to the Rockies from Ohio. I love it, works great, easy to set up, and seems rugged. The 17’ whip is unstable in winds so finding a way to stabilize it would be advised. I put my pelican case on the coax or use tent stakes on the legs.

[bassmanjr]

I just bought one of these in Xenia, so I was glad to see you cover it. I've played with it a couple of times, and I think once you get used to tuning it, you probably can get it tuned in a couple of minutes. I have the Xeigu G90 and can watch the SWR sweep right on the radio. There is no need to disconnect and connect up coax. I also bought some clips for radials to connect to the metal legs and plan to use 3x the wires and 3x shorter to reduce the chance of someone getting caught up in them. I also bought the radial wire in bright orange. Always buying stuff. 😂

[HabemusQuattro]

Tuning is easier with this antenna if you have it sitting directly on the ground. Even that bit of height on Dave’s small deck is enough to make the tuning more finicky on some bands.

[JennyEverywhere]

I use photographers' sandbags to hold the legs down. I like them because they are very durable, hold a fair amount of sand or whatever you want to use. I use clean, unused kitty litter. I used litter my cat didn't like, so u didn't let it go to waste.

Put the ground radials on the studs that attach the legs to the hub. That's why they have lugs on the radials. You can put one on each leg or all of them on one leg.

That's when I'm operating at a place where I can't put a stakes in the ground. I always have a few high end aluminum stakes, and can drive them in so they hold a leg down.

I have 3 different length whips, a short whip, the standard whip, and a long whip, about 200 inches. That gives the most efficiency, I've found. The 200-inch whip pretty much requires staking or sandbagging, because it's very top heavy.

I used the TIA with the extra long whip, sandbagged down on the tarmac outside my partner's airplane hangar. I ran the radials the length of the hangar from her plane's door, past an unoccupied storage room, and around the corner. I weighed it down at the end with a couple of large stones. I couldn't fan the radials out because planes were regularly driving down that tarmac, and I didn't want them running over the radials.

I used the antenna from just inside the hangar, using my Elecraft KX3. I managed to operate on CW from the Philly suburbs, working a bunch of hams on both the Kansas and Texas QSO parties. It did very well, getting good signal reports at 5-10 watts. It's a good antenna, and you can get a decent SWR by listening to the radio's noise level of your forgot your SWR meter or analyzer. That's what i had to do that day and asking with the KX3's internal tuner it worked great.

[TravelinHam]

I just used my WRC mag-mounted to the roof of my truck and got 379 contacts at Black Canyon of the Gunnison in 3.5 hours of operating. You live in a beautiful area, Dave. 😎

The trick for 20m is to align the top edge of the collar with the very top coil. 73, my friend!

[Jiminico]

This review doesn’t do the WRC justice and was painful to watch. Never saw anyone have such a tough time getting one set up and running out of the box or any other time. I guess when you know so much it’s difficult to follow the recommended directions and check out the links for easy tuning for each band. Was really shaking my head when you couldn’t tune 20 meters, especially when you started to collapse the whip.

[robertmiller]

I love my WRC, never had any issues with tuning or anything else. I've used a 102" CB whip mostly Setting in my backyard, I broke through a pile up for my first Australia contact recently from Oklahoma City. No amp needed. And, I'm a fairly inexperienced newbie to boot. Would highly recommend it.

[johnforte]

Dave you did an excellent job demonstrating this antenna. You took us in the real world. You showed that this antenna will work in a poor operating environment and you stated that point more than once. So now if I buy this antenna I will know exactly what it's all about. Thanks

[kengerace]

I run one off the bumper of the truck with their 102” flexible whip antenna. I have the dual tap setup they sell to be able to move between two bands just by moving between either collar with just a banana plug.

[Blake-WLB]

I have the same coil, I added radials following K8MRD’s videos and I also added a 17’ whip. If you’re working one band like you say it’s a great antenna. I added banana plugs to the shorting wire so I can work several bands with just moving where the wire is plugged like a Buddistick.

[NYTA]

I have several items from WRC including the TIA. They make excellent products that are a great value.

[jameskioeb]

Thank you Dave. I don’t have the WRC TIA yet, but I did get a 17’ whip from Chameleon Antenna and this helps me understand better how to tune it. I have a plan to get one of these at HamVention.

[dwyn]

Sometimes TIA = "thanks in advance!", so I was thinking, wait, we should be thanking you in advance! Another great video!

[rfburns]

I have the coil and experienced the same tuning issues as seen in your video. It is well constructed but the one flaw is the stainless steel pressure contactor in the collar. In my opinion, contact is not solid enough and gets warm to the touch with only 100 watts. At 400 watts, the contactor got so hot the PVC pipe melted and the coil listed at a 45 degree angle and was ruined. I believe the instrucitons said it was good for up to 1 KW. They stood behind their product and replaced it. However, I see on their web site they have derated it. "What power will your coils support? - 100 Watts SSB, 50 Watts CW and 20 Watts digital." That's reasonable and I will only use it for single band portable operation due to the finicky tuning issue.

[rogerlafrance]

Nice antenna makings, you can even tune a long wire. Makes a good 80-40 mobile antenna with a steel whip. If your a band hopper, a remote autotuner at the base might be a better investment.

[CireFargo_]

Thanks for the video. One very polite suggestion, try a lanyard to retain and lower your mic then clip to your shirt. Airs thin in the mountains. Thanks again.

[AlreadyThere]

You can get a second collar to add to it. Then you can switch between 2 bands quickly once you have it tuned. An analyzer will save you a lot of time.

[petersichel]

This can be a great antenna but it takes some effort. (1) you need a good antenna analyzer to make tuning practical (like a RigExpert). Use a sharpie to mark your tuned configurations for next time; (2) If you upgrade to a 17' whip (like the Chameleon from DXE), you don't need a coil to work 14 MHz and above. Just shorten the whip as needed. Poke the tripod legs into the dirt, or use something else to stabilize them; (3) Radials matter and three is not enough for great results; (4) the supplied wires are a pain to deal with. #22 silicone insulated wire is easy to untangle. I've used 3 bundles of six 14' radials. Clip the loose end to hold the wires together and bunch them without winding. To deploy you toss out the bunch, unclip, run your fingers through to straighten and then spread them out. You can setup a great radial field in just a few minutes. The radials don't need to be perfectly even or straight. 240' of wire on the ground will give great results.

The radiation resistance of a dipole is around 70 ohms. A quarter wave ("half dipole") around 35 ohms. Half that can drop the radiation resistance (RR) to around 17 ohms. Since efficiency is the ratio of RR to all resistance, a good radial field is essential. You don't want to lose more than half your power to heating the ground and loading coil. Verticals are generally less efficient than a dipole, but can have superior low angle radiation needed for DX. Dipoles are efficient, but at low elevation radiate mostly upward (NVIS). If you just want to make a few POTA contacts, a minimal configuration may be good enough. If you want to operate portable from say Aruba (as I did), you'll need a good antenna to see much action.

[garryhammond]

Second reply - Thanks Dave! - I have integrated one of these coils onto a Buddipole tripod in an inverted "T" arrangement, replacing the Buddipole telescoping elements with MFJ-1979 17' elements, and also adding a capacity hat to the main vertical radiating element.
I've had some great portable results.
But, as you mention, changing bands is a manual process (and a pain) - A graphical antenna analyzer does show clearer response curves, and simplify tuning somewhat.

[TheShawna]

I'ld set the analyzer for the frequency you want 20 meters and take note of swr, then adjust the slider one way or the other taking note of swr changes then make a determination which way to go with the slider.jim KB1PFL