I enjoy building my own antennas.  In the past, I have built and used dipoles, multiband verticals, loops and random wire antennas.
An interest in portable Qrp operation has led to several portable antennas designs.  When traveling, I like to carry a portable station.
While I have had good success with random wire antennas for travel, trees or other supports are not always available.  Thus, I have
been working on portable vertical designs.  The requirement is that the antenna must cover 40-10 meters (at least) and take up a
minimal amount of space in my luggage.

Portable Vertical with built in L network tuner:
I built this antenna approximately 6 years ago wile living in New Jersey.  I had noted that Radio Shack stocks a 72" collapsible whip
antenna and decided to see what I could build with it.  The outcome was a L network tuner used to match a 72" whip on 40-10 meters.
I added binding posts to allow the tuner to be used with a random wire when available.  A counterpoise is connected to the ground side
(black binding post).

Parts list:
Radio Shack 72" whip                              RS# 270-1408B
Project box (at least 3x5") or larger
12 Position switch
Toroid   T130-2
Wire 22 AWG
Variable Capacitor  10-100Pf or larger
BNC connector for input
Binding Posts for output
 

The matching network is constructed by winding 30 or more turns on the toroid. At each 3 turn interval, twist a loop in the
wire and leave it hanging from the side of the toroid.  These taps are attached to switch terminals of the 12 position switch.
This produces a switchable inductance.  The inductor is placed in series with the input and the variable capacitor is
connected across the output after the inductor.  If desired, a spdt switch can be used to switch the capacitor connection
from before or after the inductor.  This will allow matching a wider range of impedances.
 
 

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