Replies

QRZ?

I'm going to see what our local club has going on today. Honestly their (and many clubs) Em Comm activities are too much in bed with the government for my liking. But still, as I have mentioned in another thread, I am interested in being set up for portable, rapidly deployable HF operation for whatever purpose it might have in the future.

I'm putting together a balanced fed flat top mostly for NVIS work on the lower bands, but I do want some interstate and transcontinental capability.

With that in mind I recently picked up a store bought AV-18VS vertical which is just large enough to be a full size radiator on 20M and up, yet collapses to about a 5’ package. I could not have bought the material for a home built antenna that would be as light and rugged as that for the 99 bucks, I tried. There are the buddistick variants and other compromise designs that would appeal more to, say, a backpack QRPer, but that is not my aim.

I have been perfecting a more rugged coax feed and coil mounting arrangement for the little Hy-Gain, but haven't figured out a better tap setup yet. Maybe a spring loaded hook probe (as in a standard test lead kit). I see them used for coil taps on some of the antenna kits out in the wild, but I don't know how much power the small hook will handle and the rest of the setup will easily handle full legal limit. I plan a stake down tripod mount using a standard camera tripod, putting the base of the antenna almost 4’ off the ground, and from there will work out an assortment of throw down radials that will simply alligator clip to the base. Finally, when I find a suitable joining piece I'll split the bottom section just above the coil so the longest part of the whole thing will be within the 5’ maximum, and paint the vertical element for decreased visibility.

So it will be no tuner required for any band (though I use a mid size MFJ manual tuner), and full size on the higher bands. I expect 5 minute setup will be no problem.

I wanted to have it on the air to try this weekend but prospecting for work has interfered the last several days. That's something that has to take priority right now as I'm close to running out of money. Something good may be happening in the very near future at a location I had not considered. Everything is a compromise though and I could do a whole lot worse than North Carolina.

Still need to get a decent portable rig. I'm really liking the look of the FT897D and if I can scratch up the dough that is probably what it will be. I really like the internal battery capability that would give some operating time without setting up power. 857D is probably a close second and certainly lots of used ones are around. The various Icoms are really nice but seem to be a lot more expensive. I can wait though. The old FT747 I dug out of the packed up stuff has had all of the issues associated with age and disuse worked out, and I did some mods to improve the audio and provide variable SSB drive, and installed LED lighting. Full general coverage was implemented ages ago. Bare bones as it is, it's working pretty darn good and will eventually make a great backup rig.