Author Topic: thoughts  (Read 5784 times)

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junior125

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thoughts
« on: March 17, 2017, 07:44:39 PM »
any thoughts on hy-gain's? anyone have personal experience with them

https://www.gigaparts.com/hy-gain-av-18vs.html

My property doesn't have any mature trees to string an antenna from, putting a post in the ground and mounting a vertical might be a bit simpler

any opinions?
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BTPost

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2017, 12:54:12 AM »
Just remember to build the other half of the Antenna...... The RF Ground....
Bruce in alaska AL7AQ

Tevin

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2017, 07:13:54 AM »
It's a decent --not great, but decent--- antenna.

As BT said make sure you have a solid ground radial system.

Tempstar

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2017, 07:14:17 PM »
I have a Cushcraft version, does pretty well but not as well as a dipole. Have you checked into Chameleon? lots of our club guys run the EMCOMM II in their HOA's, some in attics and some along fences, and seem to do really well.

http://chameleonantenna.com/CHA%20EMCOMM%20II/CHA%20EMCOMM%20II.html

You can send Carl an email there and he will help you out.
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junior125

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2017, 09:15:38 AM »
I don't have any restrictions just trying to avoid the power lines in front of my house, and don't have any tall trees and putting up a tower is low on the building priorities

just don't want to get a gv5r type antenna if being 10ish foot off the ground is going to render it an issue
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ghrit

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2017, 09:33:01 AM »
I don't have any restrictions just trying to avoid the power lines in front of my house, and don't have any tall trees and putting up a tower is low on the building priorities

just don't want to get a gv5r type antenna if being 10ish foot off the ground is going to render it an issue

If you are short of trees, your power company might be willing to install "private power poles" on your property.  A friend of mine up here is going to do that this summer.  Not cheap, but WAY less pricey than a tower; something under 500frns installed.
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junior125

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2017, 09:35:19 AM »
might be worth the call, we do fall under a co op power company
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firewallsrus

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2017, 09:07:18 PM »


I cut a 20meter dipole in the backyard a few weeks ago.  The peak was a 18' painter's pole, the ends were around 6' high.  Almost imediately I got a clear contact and had a good conversation with a man in Slovenia who was using the above vertical antenna which appears to be a multiban Comet vertical without radials (from google maps).  His vertical is mounted on the top of a 6' high clothesline pole. 5,411.9 miles from my antenna to his and both of us were running barefoot (100Watts).

I say just cut some wire and get on the air.

Tevin

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2017, 07:07:28 AM »
Great job, man. Simple antennas work!

firewallsrus

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2017, 08:59:47 PM »
Thanks for the encouragement, but my point is that many new hams wait too long to get on the HF band space because they think they need a very expensive or complicated antenna.  Certainly you get better performance with better equipment, but there are a lot of cheap solutions that work great.

If you want to maximize your time, invest around $250 in a basic antenna analyzer like the MFJ-259C.  I hear complaints they aren't accurate, but they work great for quickly getting a wire up and tuned.  An analyzer puts a very very weak signal on your antenna and then you can tune the output frequency of your analyzer to find the SWR dip on the band you want to operate on.  If the dip happens at too low a frequency, trim a bit off the ends and re-test  If it happens at too high a frequency, twist a few more inches of wire on each end.  If you are using just an SWR meter, or your radio transmitter, you don't know exactly where the dip is unless you are willing to go back and forth to the transmitter and key it, check SWR, then go trim a bit more.

Because I rarely have my antennas at anything like a reasonable height, I tend to have to cut them much shorter than the references suggest. 

I wish I had a 40 foot tower with a 20 meter beam and 40 Meter wire like my Dad had, but I simply don't have the room or the money at the moment.

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #10 on: October 24, 2017, 10:41:01 PM »
One of my first home made antennas was a 10 meter dipole at 28 feet and my first from AZ  contact was Atlanta, then Buenos Ares, and the 3rd was North Cook Island. Made it from speaker wire i had laying around.

Took me 30 min to build and stuck it on the front lawn in my HOA disguised as a Christmas tree. 
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spacecase0

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Re: thoughts
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2017, 11:45:55 PM »
I have a grid dip meter,
very handy for figuring out where your antenna is
it is way more useful than my SWR meter when building an antenna

I run a 40M antenna that is about 10 foot over the ground
it works just fine for local communications,
if you can't get height,
try it anyway, it will likely be just fine
(then again , I can here everyone when no one else can, but a less than ideal number of people her me)