TGIF
Yesterday found me getting the rest of the antennas up and the coax into the shack. As of 2000 hrs Local last night the 2m and 6m loops are back on their telescopic masting and working as good as they did before with the FT 897. The VHF JPole is back on its mast and accessing all the local repeaters hooked up to the FT2400 which is filling in for the FT2900 which is still out for repair.
Attached to the FT450 is a vertical longwire (fed with a 4:1 balun) that goes up about 35 feet then hangs over a tree branch and comes back down about 35 feet. Imagine a folded vertical might be the best way to describe it or a very narrow inverted V that is end fed. In addition I have a couple of counterpoises running along the inside of the fence. So far it has rcvd average signal reports on the lower bands and I have not given it a test on the higher bands yet but hoping to do today if I can get my chores finished early enough. It seems to load up everywhere using the tuner so I am figuring it will perform its duty when called upon.
Getting close to a milestone… If you look on the right hand side of your screen right below “Bob said on Twitter” and above “Blogroll” you will find the “Blog Stats” which is the counter for the blog. I estimate that sometime on Saturday the blog will roll over the 200,000 visitor mark. I started this blog back in Feb 2008 and approx 3 and a half years later we are still going…. Not as strong as we used to…. but we are still going….. I thank you for your visits over the years….
As I mentioned earler I have to test out some antennas at home this weekend and I would also like to test out my Par ends fed multiband antenna. It was loaned out for a while and it was mentioned to me that the SWR was very high on 40m. To be honest I did not notice it the last time I used it but when I quickly put it up yesterday the swr was really bad. The antenna has not been used by me that much since I got it but it has been loaned out a couple of times… Seeing that the SWR is great on 10m and 20m but not so great (ok… really really bad…) on 15m and 40m I have a bad feeling about the coil/trap at the end of the 20m section. They say the antenna is rated for 20w and seeing as I only operated it using the FT817 and the two amateurs I loaned the antenna to are QRP Operators I don’t think anything is fried but perhaps a broken wire under the heat shrink in the trap might be it…
I’ll let you know how my efforts go….
CU over the weekend to let you know how much got done today and also to brag about the 200,000 visitor…
73bob
Tags: 200000 visitor, amateur radio, amateur radio antenna, Fixing antennas
August 12, 2011 at 2:10 pm |
Bob, glad you survived the RF depravation…….now go play radio and catch up on it!!
Are you not putting the W3EDP back up, or are you just going to go with the long wire?
73!!
August 13, 2011 at 2:11 am |
Bill,
The W3EDP might go back up once I can get a line over a tree limb. The easiest way to do that is from the roof but… I’m not allowed on the roof so I have to wait till the sat dish guy comes in for another install and I’ll get him to toss the line over the tree… For now its the folded vertical or nothing
73bob
August 12, 2011 at 8:06 pm |
Hi Bob, The PAR multi-band antenna needs careful tuning as per the spec sheet that was included with it. Tuning is slightly different for every location where it is used. If it’s never been tuned then the SWR will be off on some of the bands and especially on 40 meters. I have one like that and once it is tuned for your specific location it will work like gangbusters. It’s a very good DX antenna. Tune with an analyzer like the MFJ-259 unit. I really don’t think the trap is fried.
73 from the hinterlands of south Ottawa,
Bob VE3MPG
August 13, 2011 at 2:13 am |
Hi Bob,
I took the antenna apart and cleaned it up then put it back together with no parts left over and it works as good as it did previously. I re-read the manual and will be following your suggestions to tune it…
I am expecting great things from this portable antenna
73bob