DX EXPEDITION                                                                       

It is hard to choose the antenna to go along with you on an expedition or holiday. The antenna must have certain features like:
100 % proof that it works

All antenna systems with difficult feeding systems are not allowed this means "high" gain yagis like HB9CV are off limit.
The change is just too high something might happen, HB9CV in the Quad family is called a Swiss Quad and these are expend as well.
Looking at verticals: this withdraws certain who have an outside coil like montova etc..
The Antenna must be straight forward.  The best was if there was no impedance matching as is with a dipool or Quad.

Light

Nobody wants to walk with heavy stuff, so It has to remain with 1..2..maybe 3 KG,  this comes down to probarly any type of electrical wire antenna, aluminium tubing is heavy and has to keep its shape where wire can be bent in any position in any briefcase and can be put up later without damage.

Stealthy

We dont want to attrack to much attention. Sometimes customs are a bit tricky you do not want to be late simply because they did not trust the wire's or aluminum you had with you.

Easy to set Up

Nobody wants to waste time on putting up an antenna we must make prog.numbers. We need DX!  Say 10..15 min is max.

Small

Logical you do not want to be walking around with anything larger than yourself hi hi...preferably only a meter.

Perhaps even Gain

Oh boy, if only it was possible to have gain from a small antenna....

All taken in mind we have a few possibilities

                   IN VERTICALS WE TAKE 1/4 and the 1/2 WAVELENGTH
PLUS MINUS
 Both random sensitive Both random sensitive
Both do not need a mast they have a low take-off angle
when they are erected only a meter from the ground		 A half wave vertical has a coil
Easy to put up in 5..10 min Verticals are poor antennas in the desert
A half wave vertical needs no ground radials A quarter wave vertical does need radials
Great performer near water
 No gain

              THE SKYPPER  (G4ZU bird yagi)     SKYPPER (Bird yagi/G4ZU)
PLUS MINUS
Provides gain 6 dB  Needs to be at least a half wave length (5 meters) above the ground
to become attractive for DXing
Provides  Front to Back...perhaps you do not want to
be heard somewhere..		 Whit the directivity you will need to aim it where u want your signal..
You can aim the beam at the continent you want! Larger then a vertical
Easy to put up in 10 min
Directly fed with coax no matching needed

          THE BAMBY     (1 element Quad)         BAMBY (1 element Quad)
PLUS MINUS
Only needs one high point almost no gain (1dB)
Can not go wrong (basic an electrical wire 11 meter
long will do the trick) You can make it from almost anything!		 When you want to aim it you will have to turn it
or put two up
It has a figure 8 pattern looked from above so you can aim it! Still needs one high point.
Easy to put up in 10 min.
You can directly feed the antenna with coax no matching needed

      THE DIPOOL
PLUS MINUS
Cant go wrong, two pieces of wire No gain
It has a figure 8 pattern looked from above so you can aim it It needs to be at least a half wavelength (5/6 M)of the ground for DXing
Easy to put up 10 min..20 min needs two high points for horizontal polarization and u need two up for full coverage

On my DX activation as  234SD0 (afghanistan), there was a small opertunity to bring the above in practise. 234 division consist for the best part out of sand.
Sand and verticals do NOT match!
Water and verticals on the other hand DO match just think of those strong MM stations on the frequency.
So up-front, the results were probably a bit down with a vertical. It was however with what I started of. 

It was the most simple antenna (1/4 vertical (groundplane) for me to carry along with me. (as a fishing rod...fishing in Afghanistan hi hi) But the above in  the back of my head i started thinking of anything else but a vertical.

As soon as I got my hands on some wire I made a single element Quad (Bamby) erected it on some wooden pole about 6 meters high. The results were 1 S-unit better then on my 1/4 wavelength vertical. The noises went down and more stations could enter the log..a big improvement.
(It could be mentioned again that in other circumstances where we would be on a pacific Island the results were better with a vertical..)
Whit the Bamby 1el Quad, most stations were logged.

After a while the competive spirit kickes in, and you want to improve your existing station.
The same happend to me after a couple months. But sadly no materials limited any posibility for me.
Alex 1SD019 who I contacted with this problem was so kind to post a Skypper to me. After a couple weeks it arrived...never thought that it would happen !

As soon as possible this antenna was erected at almost the same height as the Bamby, about 8 meter.
The Results for me were enormous! 2 to 3 S-units better..And you can ask anyone who was a bit active cause I tested all the time. (the skypper had a 1,5 meter height advantege and the antennas were too close to each other to give honest reports (within a wavelenght).)

 For me the Skypper had only a 2 disadvantages.
1) I had to climb up the container to change direction towards Europa was on the back when beaming towardsAustralia.
2) It was bigger..and people were looking up, luckily they bought the story about receiving the Radio World Service better on it hi hi.

My conclusion: If you can handle a Skypper antenna...put it UP! Otherwise the Bamby will do a super job for u aswell!

Here is a link to a PDF file from 21DX139 and 21AT116 with their conclusion between the Skypper and the Bamby antenna.

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The 1/4 vertical                                          The 1 element Bamby at work.                       1 el Bamby and The Skypper.
1/4 wl vertical 3 el skyper skypper