N6KR FD report

[wayne burdick]

I had only a few hours to participate this year, so  I put the KX1 and
accessories into a day-pack and walked to a nearby park. Conditions
seemed to be good, and I made some 60 contacts on 20 and 40 CW (running
1.5 W, using internal batteries). I listened from home on Saturday
night and found 80 meters really busy -- nice to hear this band so
active. On Sunday I took the K2 as well as the KX1, and made some SSB
and 15 m CW Qs.

My big takeaway from the weekend is that a longer, partly-horizontal
random wire is more effective than 25' of wire straight up, at least
for 40 m daytime operation. With the vertical wire, I missed some
contacts. On Sunday I put up 50' of wire, of which over half was
horizontal, and had much better luck on 40.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

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[Leigh L. Klotz Jr WA5ZNU]

Wayne,

What radial did you use on 40m for the 50ft random wire?  33ft, 33ft
shortened for ground coupling, or random length?

Background: I have tried using your recommendation of 28ft for the
center conductor and band-switching with 16, 24, or 33 ft on the ground
for the radial.  Bonnie KQ6XA recomends a radial 10-15% shorter than 1/4
lamda if it is not elevated, but I found 1.2:1 with the ATU, and don't
have the RF Ammeter (or light bulb) that K6ACJ Bill used to verify those
length recommendations.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 10:18am, wayne burdick wrote:
> My big takeaway from the weekend is that a longer, partly-horizontal
> random wire is more effective than 25' of wire straight up, at least
> for 40 m daytime operation. With the vertical wire, I missed some
> contacts. On Sunday I put up 50' of wire, of which over half was
> horizontal, and had much better luck on 40.
73,
WA5ZNU Leigh
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[wayne burdick]

On Jun 28, 2004, at 11:55 AM, Leigh L. Klotz, Jr. wrote:

> Wayne,
>
> What radial did you use on 40m for the 50ft random wire?  33ft, 33ft
> shortened for ground coupling, or random length?
>
> Background: I have tried using your recommendation of 28ft for the
> center conductor and band-switching with 16, 24, or 33 ft on the
> ground for the radial.  Bonnie KQ6XA recomends a radial 10-15% shorter
> than 1/4 lamda if it is not elevated, but I found 1.2:1 with the ATU,
> and don't have the RF Ammeter (or light bulb) that K6ACJ Bill used to
> verify those length recommendations.

The optimal length of ground radials will vary with how many you use,
as well as local conditions, including nearby objects (Bar-B-Ques,
highly-conductive family members, volleyball net supports, etc.). I was
actually using a single 15' radial, alligator-clipped to a 3' or so
ground rod that some past user of the picnic table had kindly pounded
in   ;)

50' is also just an estimate. In any case, the KX1 and K2 auto-tuners
both tuned up the random wire on all bands.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

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