Re:QRP Antenna

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Re:QRP Antenna

Clark Macaulay KE4RQ
Hello everyone.
   
  Thanks for the all of the suggestions (as well as comiserating with me).  Here I thought my lot with all the trees would be a great place to install several wire antennas (which it is) and  never gave it a thought that being in a hole would present special challenges.  Ron, thanks for your perspective: in every cloud there is a silver lining.  
   
  What I've concluded is that:
  1.  Since it's unlikely I'll be able to get an antenna up above the street level looking south/southeast (covenants and such), I'll stop trying to get South America and focus on East/West directions.
  2.  Putting up a wire antenna N/S for reaching Europe is a definate possibility, along the side of the house.  
  3.  I'll investigage putting up some type of vertical, hidden in the trees but at the street level, for 20m. Coax run will be rather long, though.  Working at the roof level is not an option for this old man.
   
  73,
   
  Clark Macaulay, KE4RQ
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Re: Re:QRP Antenna

Stuart Rohre
Verticals are probably preferred for tight locations, and in any case have a
nice low angle of radiation even given ground mounting, or low elevated
mounting.  Of the two, if you can get the antenna up six or more feet, so
much the better.  Then you could use gull wing elevated radials to improve
it further without needing more than say 8 radials.  If you have few
radials, be sure to put them in the directions of ham population centers.

Don't forget that you can use long path to advantage when attempting to work
DX.   Long path can be skewed from the great circle projection so if the
dipole is not aligned perfectly, it may still work for you.  When using an
inverted Vee, you "might" get some gain putting a director wire slanted on
one side, to augment radiation in the desired direction.  The sloping Vee
beam idea from Ten Tec is also of merit for the higher bands when they are
open.  100 foot legs or more, and try to have the antenna 30 feet high at
the apex of the vee, where you feed it.  Ten Tec model is terminated, but
non terminated is easier, and then will give you bi-directional coverage,
albeit one at a high angle and the other low.  Still might make for
interesting DX.  I have used 5 wave legs on a Vee beam at 10 meters, and I
can testify that is a DX burner!

-Stuart
K5KVH



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Re: Re:QRP Antenna

Sandy W5TVW
I have had some very good results with the K1 and the following:
1- MFJ-1910 33' fiberglass telescoping pole.
5 ea. of 33' lengths of #24 guage hookup wire (the MIL-SPEC stuff with striped
color coding on it.  Any hookup wire is OK.)
1 ea  25' length of same hookup wire.

I use a heavy photo tripod and bungee to anchor the pole.  In wind
you will need 3 gallon jugs full of water and more bungee to anchor the
legs!
Run a 33' wire up the MFJ mast and right into hot BNC jack pin, and
two to four 33' radials to the ground side of BNC connector.  I use a
Pomona BNC to binding post adapter.
This performs well on 40-15 meters with a built-in KAT1 tuner.
Will work equally well with a small "T" network MFJ tuner if you
don't have a KAT1.  
I even have  four 67' length wires I use when I have the 160/80 meter
RF board in the K1 on 80 meters.  Three for radials and one for first 33'
of vertical antenna and the other 33-34' drooping off to one side.

The MFJ pole is convienant and sets up very quickly.  No good for
back-packing, but I don't worry about that as I'm too damned old
for that kinda stuff anymore!

This worked well when we lost power here for 10 days after Katrina struck
the area!  Worked on a 4.5 A/H gell-cell battery and a small solar panel
to charge it up.

73,
Sandy W5TVW
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Rohre" <[hidden email]>
To: "Clark Macaulay" <[hidden email]>; "ElecraftList" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 9:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Re:QRP Antenna


| Verticals are probably preferred for tight locations, and in any case have a
| nice low angle of radiation even given ground mounting, or low elevated
| mounting.  Of the two, if you can get the antenna up six or more feet, so
| much the better.  Then you could use gull wing elevated radials to improve
| it further without needing more than say 8 radials.  If you have few
| radials, be sure to put them in the directions of ham population centers.
|
| Don't forget that you can use long path to advantage when attempting to work
| DX.   Long path can be skewed from the great circle projection so if the
| dipole is not aligned perfectly, it may still work for you.  When using an
| inverted Vee, you "might" get some gain putting a director wire slanted on
| one side, to augment radiation in the desired direction.  The sloping Vee
| beam idea from Ten Tec is also of merit for the higher bands when they are
| open.  100 foot legs or more, and try to have the antenna 30 feet high at
| the apex of the vee, where you feed it.  Ten Tec model is terminated, but
| non terminated is easier, and then will give you bi-directional coverage,
| albeit one at a high angle and the other low.  Still might make for
| interesting DX.  I have used 5 wave legs on a Vee beam at 10 meters, and I
| can testify that is a DX burner!
|
| -Stuart
| K5KVH
|
|
|
| _______________________________________________
| Elecraft mailing list
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| You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
| Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
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