40 phone was good to me tonight!

[ElevenBravo]

I want another one of these:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...hf/ts120s.html

I felt like a military radio operator tuning it up! HA HA! It just has that look & feel..


Kese, Think about a hamstick dipole.. They are not as efficient as a "real" antenna but... Ive had pretty good luck with mine! You can run it with a tuner, I have two 40m hamsticks, cant tune 20m too though of course, works best on 40m.

If you have a receiver hitch, you can have a fixture made at a weld shop for not a ton of money to slide your mast into, no need for guy wires.

A section of top rail for chain link fence works good for a mast. You can strap it all to the luggage rack for transport.

Of course, there is the option of running JUST a hamstick.. It will be "more or less" as efficient as a screwdriver, take my word for it. I set set the stinger on the hamstick all the way out where as normally you adjust the length for tune to your frequency. I then run my tuner (LDG Z-100) and let it tune it up.

You can attach a hamstick mount to your luggage rack, and to the base connect 4 radial wires and let them droop out (when you get to site), that would improve its efficiency a *LOT*.


I ran a 100w radio off one of these at the park, puts out JUST enough power:
https://www.amazon.com/PowerPro-5610...ords=generator


EB

[Kesephist]

Some money, there, with a pair of hamsticks per band.

it appears, though, that there may have been some errors here... by 'bike' i mean bicycle, not motorcycle. And using the bicycle as the mount isnt too far off... I had thoughts of getting adjustable kickstands mounted on each side to brace things to where the antenna woud be level.

[ElevenBravo]

Sorry, I missed bike.

40m hamstick dipole or 40m hamstick will tune 40m and down with an LDG Z-100. No need to buy multiple sticks. It wont however do 80m, it may do 10m. Ive only messed with 10m once.

EB

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

OK, just to let you two know I have been down for maint. Broke my Jetstream dual band antenna, put up a new Comet GP-15 tri-band. Took two attempts, first try it seems it wasn't high enough to clear power lines like the old antenna(16'9" tall) so I had to get another pole to extend it and raised it another 8 ft. So far it seems be be working a lot better, I was putting out but reception sucked. Today I took down the G5RV lite for cleaning and maint. more like sap and rust. So it's now back up and ready for testing. 80-6meters (so it says)...........now just waiting for the storms to clear a bit and I can hook it up and give it go. And away we go!

[bacpacker]

How'd you break your Jet Stream. Just curious, I have a dual bander and we used multiple units in the radio group. Never had any issues with them. Just would like to know what I need to be looking for.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Guess I should take a few pictures and post them. First issue I had was 2yrs ago when I had water intrusion. The cap on the tip of the antenna was cracked, more like split wide open. So I took it apart and dried it out and cleaned it up. I replaced the cap with a new PVC one. No more problems till last week.

Did a test run on 20 and 40 meters today, 20 was not to shabby, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, Louisiana, no east coast contacts to be heard. 40 had a lot of noise and local chat (accent). Tried 10 last night and heard some voices back in the noise but that was about it. There is a lot of mexican on 20m around 14.249. Used to find that on the low end of the 40 in the mornings as well as some Italian. Guess now that I have the other box running as well and the way shit being what it is I should be spinning the wheel and listening for chatter. Never know what's going to pop up.

[Kesephist]

Nothing on 7/19, still doing mast repair. Probably on 28.450 USB tomorrow 1300-1600 PDT

UPD: (Sigh) so much for probably. If I dont get any joy out of this mast, I will not have a great problem junking it in favor of the earlier mentioned fencing top rail, as I have the MFJ 347 fitting and lack only the elements.

[Kesephist]

Sked for 7/26 is scratched, as I have to wait around for UPS to deliver a package (ironically, of the aforementioned hamstick elements, 40, 20 and 6 meter pairs)

WILL be up 1100 PDT 7/27 to continue 10m operations at 28.450 MHz, USB. About 3pm I'll bring down that mast and reset for 6m with the Tytera rig, either roving thru 5x.whatever, or hovering around a set frequency (if anyone cares to drop one in my PM box before 0900 PDT 7/27, hint, hint)

de KI7CIL, "R.K"

Kesephist

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

OH BTW I was on till 1330 central on the 19th trying to call you on the 28.450. I did get an answer but it wasn't you! Forgot to post that............ADD and all. Won't be checking tonight due to operational commitments.

[Kesephist]

GRRRRRR ... gunnysacks, poltroons, $#!theels, ten thousand furies and serpents!

My cart decided to give up the ghost on me en route to my field site, and have just finished the delightful task of dragging 130 pounds of gear in 100+ deg heat back home. No sked today, and will be doing a build of a new cart off of a no-$#!t 2 wheeled shop dolly during the week.