My Amateur Radio Life

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Two antennas in one

Posted: 27 Apr 2020 07:33 PM PDT
https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2020/04/...tennas-in-one/


Here at home I have some really restrictive Condo rules..Â* So far I have
managed to keep on the air with various levels of resultsÂ* None of them
really great but all of them better than not being on the air.

Here is what has given me the best results (so far) but your results and
your opinions may vary

In its Super Stealth mode I am using an approximate 45 length of 18 ga wire
as an end fed (very tight inverted V folded longwire.Â* Translated it goes
up the tree over the branch and back down again.

In its Stealth mode I am using the same wire but this time its in an
Inverted L configuration and the top part runs from the tree branch across
my yard to the fence.Â* Its about 30 feet at the branch and about 10 feet at
the fence.Â* The wire is green which hides it in the pine tree that I use
for the support and its in plain sight for about 20 feet or so.



It goes without saying that the Stealth Inverted L performs much better

The antenna is fed by my SGC 237 auto antenna tuner and I do have 3 radials
of approx 25 to 40 feet each that are mostly going around the inside
perimeter of my fence.Â* IMHO the SGC is a fantastic bit of kit.Â* Rather
pricey, but for me its made the difference between making contacts and
not.Â* Plain and simple..Â* My station consists of a Good Transceiver
(FT950), a fantastic tuner (SGC237) and a very short wire



So far RFI has not been an issue and I have been able to make contacts on
all the HF bands between 6m and 160m.Â* Granted on some bands its not really
efficient but I have made contacts using either FT8 or SSB.

The same pine tree that conceals part of my HF antenna also keeps my Arrow
Dual Band Ground Plane (VHF/UHF) mostly out of site.Â* I use this to get the
2 local repeaters and one out of town repeater.Â* The two local repeaters I
can access from the living room using my handheld so if I had to remove
antennas I would still be on the air above 30 mhz at least.

Until we change locations I dont see things improving for HF or VHF/UHF
operating.Â* But I have been promised that the next location (where ever we
find ourselves) will be antenna friendly

73bob




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40m VA3QV/m contacts

Posted: 27 Apr 2020 12:51 PM PDT
https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2020/04/...qv-m-contacts/


There is still a part 4 coming.. this is just an update of a couple of 40m
contacts made earlier today


Well I still have to neaten up the installation but..



It seems to working just great.

There are some issues with engine noise/alternator whine on 40 SSB (and
most likely all over the place) but the DSP on the Yaesu FT 450 seems to be
keeping it under control.Â* Tomorrow the plan would be to take my antenna
analyzer outside and set the swr on the coil for 15m, 20m and mark the coil
according I dont see me using much else for frequencies

Today I decided to put the rig back into the truck as I had to head out for
a quick shopping trip to finalize the supper menu.

On the way there I managed to get Larry (near Dayton OH) and on the way
back I got Rick (Moncton NB) on 40m SSB.Â* I still have to make the
installation a lot neaterÂ* but I have no qualms about the performance.Â* I
also have to get some sort of mobile logging system figured out so I can
finally give you some Callsigns to go along with the names and locations.

More later

73bob