Hi Jim,
Its worth looking at the Adventure radio society website for field-expedient antennas.
I have been using a 6.7m Roach pole as a mast. Its light enough for backpacking. I have a 10m Roach pole, and a 5.4m ex army Clansman GRP mast but they are heavier.
I've tried a 40m coax fed inverted V dipole without atu but the problem is the swr varies with different ground.
Currently I'm using an Emtech ZM-2 balanced atu I built from a kit. It tunes long wires, a loop, or a balanced feedline doublet.
For multiband use, there is much to be said for using speaker wire as a balanced feedline to the top of the mast, where you split the two strands into an inverted V doublet.
For monoband use, an endfed half wave needs little or no ground, and is as efficient as a half wave dipole.
By the sea, I might be tempted to use an end fed vertical tuned against a quarter wave counterpoise for low angle takeoff.
Thinking about a bushcraft/hf radio meet again, if there is interest, this would be fairly easy to arrange. I know from experience that the best thing is to set a date and see who is available. My own thoughts were:
Late April/early May (Long days but no midgies)
Scotland (favourable access laws)
Sea loch (free fishing, good propagation, fires legal on foreshore, driftwood available)
Maximum 8 people (access laws allow 'small group' wild camping - so a realistic maximum is 2 groups of 4 camping in two nearby groups)
Obviously would have to be done under the access code so would be strictly leave-no-trace camping/hammocking and fairly modest campfire.
Probably just a short (2 to 5 mile) walk/paddle in to allow time for setting up camp/playing radio.
Would be plenty of opportunity for non-radio stuff.
Probably just a Saturday/Sunday but that leaves scope for anyone wishing to arrive on the Friday night to wild camp Friday.
As mentioned, I would favour Loch Etive, as it ticks all the boxes, starting from the North West head of the loch and walking/paddling a short distance down the north shore. Its about 2.5 hrs from Edinburgh, maybe 1.5 hrs from Glasgow by car. It might be feasible to pick up people from Crianlarich or Tyndrum rail stations too.
If anyone interested could advise interest/availability on this thread, once we have a nucleus of at least 3-4 people I can start a new thread on the Meets forum.
Loch Etive: