Elecraft has announced a new shortened vertical, the AX3, a six-band, POTA-ready antenna that adds to the previously released AX1 and AX2 shorty radiators. It’s doubtful too many folks will get to play with the AX3 for months if the roll-out logistics are similar to other newly announced Elecraft products. Full disclosure, I own the AX1 and AX2 and am pleased with those. I once set the AX1 on my dining room table (on a tripod camera mount), inside the house obviously, and worked a hundred stations in a single weekend with five watts from my KX3 transceiver just to see if it could be done.

I’ve done even better with the AX1 outside on the patio.

But here’s the rub, the antenna is short and loaded. Kinda like my Uncle Bud was (I’m here all week folks) and this flies in the face of physics and a lot of amateur radio enthusiasts who fancy themselves antenna experts. These folks hate short antennas. Can’t stand them and they waste countless hours of their lives trying to refute any success attributed to a short antenna. Having a long history with this sort of thing, I can already tell you what a lot of the ham radio mailing list traffic will soon look like:

HAM1: I just worked a Hawaiian station using my KX2 and new portable AX3 antenna!

HAM2: That’s great Bob. Wow I need to look into one of those!!

HAM3: Hold on there Pecos Bill, there’s nothing magic about that antenna. The coax is acting as a radiator and you would do much better with an 80-foot EFHW with a transformer. No one should be fooled here, these short antennas can’t “work” like you think they do. Here, let me send you a PDF of a Smith Chart.

HAM1: But I just worked Hawaii…

HAM3: That had nothing to do with that antenna, a plastic coat hanger would have worked just as well. Did you get that Smith Chart I sent?

HAM1: I’m not saying it competes with full-sized antennas. The BIG feature here is that it’s ultra-portable, lightweight, and can be set up and taken down in under a minute. Plus, it works!

HAM3: No, it can’t work. You guys just aren’t getting the physics. Did you even look at that Smith Chart I sent? That shortened antenna can’t work, it’s just a freak of nature that you happened to squirt a little RF in the direction of Hawaii and were able to make a contact. Sheesh. Sometimes I worry that you younger guys will never understand antenna theory. Why won’t anyone look at the Smith Chart, that antenna can’t work … it doesn’t work, arrrrgghh!

MODERATOR: Okay, we’re getting a little off-topic here so I’m going to go ahead and end this thread. Back to normal list business…

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Sigh.