Saturday, March 15, 2008

Antenna Realization

I put the G5RV up with bad results. I have come to the conclusion that due to my location, 60 feet is about the longest dipole I can hang with half way decent results. The 102 foot G5RV that I "bent" to fit was great on 75 / 80 meters put absolute garbage on 40, and it barely worked on 20. I took it down and put the 52 foot G5RV-JR back up and within minutes I worked a station in Texas on 40 with an S9 signal report. Shortly thereafter I worked the Virgin Islands on 14.243 (20 Meters) with 5x9 + 20DB over report. I guess I am just going to stick with the JR on 40-10 Meters and maybe get a hamstick or rotatable dipole for 80 meters. Really, I am not too worried about making contacts on 80, but it would be nice to have the band for contests because sometimes it is the only band "open". In other radio news, I did get the phono plug to wire a mic to the Clegg and I still need to run a ground wire outside to the ground rod. I also need to see about getting some RTTY (Radio Teletype) going soon. I do have the computer interface for that.

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