Mini-Buddipole
$$$··
| Frequency | 40m: 7.0-7.3 MHz, 30m: 10.1-10.15 MHz, 20m: 14.0-14.35 MHz, 17m: 18.068-18.168 MHz, 15m: 21.0-21.45 MHz, 12m: 24.89-24.99 MHz, 10m: 28.0-29.7 MHz, 6m: 50-54 MHz, 2m: 144-148 MHz |
| Bands | 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, 2m |
| Modes | SSB, CW, AM, FM, digital |
| Connector | VersaTee center feed; supplied 25 ft coax, BNC male with included PL-259 adapter |
| feedpoint | VersaTee with quick-feed coax assembly (mil-spec RG58-style, BNC male both ends, PL-259 adapter included - per the 2024 user guide) |
Estimated (unverified): introduction year of the Mini version (late 2000s)
A complete HF-and-up portable dipole that packs to 13 inches and 2.5 pounds, then assembles in minutes on a tripod or mast where there are no trees. It keeps the full Buddipole's component set - VersaTee, high-Q adjustable coils with premarked taps, telescopic whips - and the same 16-foot assembled span and 250 W PEP rating, so nothing about it feels cut down except the packed length. Band changes need no tools, and the design's homebrew roots mean spares and plans are easy to come by.
Loaded, shortened elements give up real efficiency to a full-size antenna, most noticeably on 40 m. Every band change is a manual retune of clips and whips, and getting the SWR right the first time takes patience. The tripod and mast cost extra and effectively double the price. A wire antenna in a tree costs a tenth as much and often hears better; you are paying for the no-trees, fits-in-a-daypack capability.
The travel version of the standard portable dipole, for operators whose pack space is tighter than their budget. Set against full-size wire it is a compromise on the low bands, but it goes up in minutes in places with nothing to hang wire from, and that is the entire point.
In January 2000, Budd Drummond started experimenting with something most hams had not considered: operating HF while literally walking. The antenna he worked out for his strolling station was a dipole built from CPVC plumbing pipe with telescoping whips on the ends, tuned per band by adjusting the whips. He published the plans for free, hams everywhere built them, and when he and his son Chris turned the design into a product, the name wrote itself: Budd's dipole, Buddipole. The Mini-Buddipole is that idea distilled to its most packable form.
Mechanically it is simple: a VersaTee center block, two high-Q adjustable loading coils with premarked clip positions, two telescopic whips, and (the Mini's one trick) four 11-inch anodized arms in place of the standard model's two 22-inch arms. The assembled antenna spans the same roughly 16 feet and carries the same 250 W PEP rating; the difference is the package, which collapses to 13 inches and about two and a half pounds, small enough for a daypack side pocket. The maker rates it for 40 m through 2 m, with band changes made by moving the coil clips and re-extending the whips, no tools involved.
Physics still applies. Sixteen feet of loaded dipole on 40 m is a fraction of the band's full 66-foot half-wave, and the coils that make it fit also burn some of your signal; performance closes in on a full-size dipole as you climb toward 10 m. The tripod and mast are sold separately, and each band change means a minute or two of clip-and-whip adjustment. What you are buying is independence from geography: this antenna goes up on a beach, a parking lot, a balcony, or a mountaintop with nothing to hang wire from, and that is a problem wire cannot solve at any price.
Within the family, the full-size Buddipole gives the same system more length and more options when packed size matters less, and the tree-free niche has one other notable resident in the small magnetic loop, an Alpha Loop type antenna trades the Mini's bandwidth and power handling for an even smaller footprint. The nicest footnote is that the homebrew CPVC plans that started it all still circulate free, with Drummond's pointer page still standing, so you can buy the refined aluminum article or build the ancestor for pocket change.