My Amateur Radio Life

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Its bigger than I thought

Posted: 26 May 2020 03:37 PM PDT
https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2020/05/...han-i-thought/


and it works great

Back on May 8th I posted that I had finally ordered the Wolf River 10-80m
mobile coil for VA3QV/m.

Well today it showed up and I am pleased. very pleased

Its a little bigger than the 10-40 Wolf River coil that I already was using:




10-40 on the left and 10-80 on the right

With the coil mounted on the rear of the truck, add in the length of the
coil and then the 102 inch stainless steel whip we come out to 14 feet 3
inches which is a bit over the Provincial limit of 13 feet 6 inches.

This was expected but I wanted to play with the new toy ASAP so I headed
out to Lake Ontario Park in Kingston with everything laying in the box of
the truckÂ* I found a shady place to park and then set up the coil for 80m
using my MFJ antenna analyzer.







I was able to determine that my SWR was acceptable on 80m between 3.720 and
3.775.Â* Â*Anything over/under that would be easily corrected by the built in
auto tuner on the Yaesu FT 450



But the proof is not in what the computer says but more in what the station
says when I contact them.

As the sweet spot on 80m was already set I aimed for 3.755 and heard the
NCS for the ONTARS Net (Rob VA3WDKÂ* south of North Bay Ontario) who heard
me and gave me a 5/7 to 5/9 report during our 3-5 minute conversation. That
was a distance of approx 180 miles north west of Kingston with daytime
conditions on 80m

I am more than pleased with the results so far and over the next few days I
will be removing the top 12 inches of the whip which should bring it down
to a legal 13 feet 3 inches (total height) and then I will set the sweet
spots on the coil for 15m, 20m, 40m, 60m and 80m which are the primary
bands I would be using when Liz and I are out (eventually) pulling our new
trailer.Â* Not sure when that will happen but when it does.Â* The truck will
be radio active to say the least.

The blog will be updated in the near future once I get the whip trimmed
with my final comments on what I consider (at this time) to be a superior
product at a great price.

More to follow

73bob