My base station: the Kenwood TS-990S
 

       

and for portable and on holidays I am using an - IC-7000 or an Elecraft KX3
and just as a spare unit... my FT-817

Which one do I prefer ? it depends on the weight and destination for the holidays.

  My portables:

 
Hytera PD785G for DMR    Yaesu VX-8DE with APRS   or the tiny VX-3E

Antenna at home:

The hy-gain AV-640 'PATRIOT' was set up with my friend OE3ZK within a day.
Our estimate was half of that time...

One day a storm brought it down. Carefull inspection showed: The tube
with reference 'BC' was assembled upside-down. Electrical it was absolute
the same, but mechanical it was wrong. The complete anttenna was replaced
by a new AV-640.

Our flat roof, around 15m above ground, provides a perfect counterpoise. The antenna works surprisingly well. The picture shows only the top section, the view to the lower half is covered by the rail.

NEVER mount a AV-640 without any guying ropes.
The manual just suggests it - but it's a MUST!

The trap-less design of the AV-640 is impressive. Only the original hose clams
that came in the package are simple in their design. I have replaced them all.
See pictures below.
 

guess which one is the original?

the hose clam mounted
and painted for protection

antenna - view to the south

antenna - view to the north

antenna - view to the east

antenna - view to the west

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My portable antennas:

Recent time I used a short endfed dipole for 20m. Patented by OM Karl DJ5IL
Patent DE10322186  (pdf in german language) link:
https://goo.gl/wj5I7m


picture by DJ5IL

 and my Balun:  

___

The 'no counterpoise' antenna gave me good results
during my trips abroad. More details here
Used this type of antenna during my trip in French Polynesia in 2009

 

On field days I have tried this one:


'NVIS antennas'
(links)    
A inverted-V, tuned for 20m, only 6m high, is a NVIS antenna too!
The NVIS antennas have a very steep radiation towards the sky,
to cover 2000 km around the antenna location.