INGO HAM Radio Club

[laf]

I think you'll be pretty displeased with 80m hamsticks. They're just loading coils at that point and you'll be so close to the ground it won't get out far. You might be ok with it as a vertical but who knows. I've got a huge set of them in a sale from an estate, never used them but you're welcome to try before you buy one.

If you have the space for a cobra antenna you may consider that. I've got the Sr and my dad has the Jr. They both work very well. You do need another balun and a 1:1 choke. both the Sr and Jr tune up on 6m just fine.

Along the wire end lines consider using sailboat pulleys at the end so they can float around in the breeze and it's very easy to lower it once the wire stretches a bit and loses tune. Meant to handle saltwater so they should hold up to ice and snow. I have the ends held up by them and one leg is held taught by an old brake rotor thru a pulley. Trees can sway around and it won't snap under tension.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I think you'll be pretty displeased with 80m hamsticks. They're just loading coils at that point and you'll be so close to the ground it won't get out far. You might be ok with it as a vertical but who knows. I've got a huge set of them in a sale from an estate, never used them but you're welcome to try before you buy one.

If you have the space for a cobra antenna you may consider that. I've got the Sr and my dad has the Jr. They both work very well. You do need another balun and a 1:1 choke. both the Sr and Jr tune up on 6m just fine.

Along the wire end lines consider using sailboat pulleys at the end so they can float around in the breeze and it's very easy to lower it once the wire stretches a bit and loses tune. Meant to handle saltwater so they should hold up to ice and snow. I have the ends held up by them and one leg is held taught by an old brake rotor thru a pulley. Trees can sway around and it won't snap under tension.

Great minds think alike. I have a pulley at the far end at the top of the pole with paracord to the ground that ties off using a small dock cleat. The tip of the wire is in a small loop, and I pass through a small 1/8" bungee cord that each end hooks to the paracord loop. And I lower it when not in use.

Oh, and with my 2nd story deck of our split level, combined with a mast I can easily get it 40' off the ground if I bolt the mast to the railing and the side of the house.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Well, looks like I have some hamshack shielding issues to address.
I was working away at 40 meters making contacts all over. Ft wayne, Almost Indy (too close to make out) LA, TN, VA,etc. Having a good time.

I needed to go do actual after hours work on some network gear so I sign off. As soon as I do my 14yo daughter yells from upstairs "Dad, come look at my computer. Its acting up again."

"You are going to think I'm smoking crack, but I think I'm hearing voices in my headphones. Well, just my right ear. And they arent clear voices. They sound like the adults on Charlie Brown cartoons." I thought about it for a second and said "Is it intermittent, or constant"
"Intermittent."
"Hold on. Let me try something. Put your headphones back on. "

From my ham shack I hopped back into the group and made contact again. She texted me "Yep. Its happening again."

So apparently her right headphone is picking up the radiation coming off my wire antenna in the back yard. LOL
Now to try to figure out how to isolate it. My coax is already grounded to the earth ground rod, so that's not it...

First step is new headphones.

 

[laf]

New headphones (probably) won't fix it. You need some ferrite cores. Mix 31 for HF interference. I buy mine from DigiKey but DX sells the Palomar Engineer branded kits. You can buy the clip on ones that are split in half or the donut style that you have to wind the cable through. Better choking with the donut style but the clip on is easy to use. Avoid amazon/ebay, you don't know what mix you're really getting. DigiKey has the best price per core but buy in bulk to save $$ because shipping sucks.

And if you're doing that you may want to look into mix 75 or 77 for switching power supplies ie. wall warts. Those stupid things will raise your noise floor and put birdies all over HF. I'm in the process of adding them to our camper DC power areas. Lights, tv amp, stove fan, AC-DC converter. It was unusable on HF during POTA attemps because of that and now it's better. Plus side is I can also watch TV while I cook. It was so choppy it was interfering with the TV preamplifier.

 

[Cameramonkey]

New headphones (probably) won't fix it. You need some ferrite cores. Mix 31 for HF interference. I buy mine from DigiKey but DX sells the Palomar Engineer branded kits. You can buy the clip on ones that are split in half or the donut style that you have to wind the cable through. Better choking with the donut style but the clip on is easy to use. Avoid amazon/ebay, you don't know what mix you're really getting. DigiKey has the best price per core but buy in bulk to save $$ because shipping sucks.

And if you're doing that you may want to look into mix 75 or 77 for switching power supplies ie. wall warts. Those stupid things will raise your noise floor and put birdies all over HF. I'm in the process of adding them to our camper DC power areas. Lights, tv amp, stove fan, AC-DC converter. It was unusable on HF during POTA attemps because of that and now it's better. Plus side is I can also watch TV while I cook. It was so choppy it was interfering with the TV preamplifier.

That is going to be tricky with my feeder cable. What is in the house is LMR-400. I had a spool of that left over from an project so I used that since it had such low loss compared to RG-58.

I guess if the clip on ones will work and I dont have to loop them at all, I can probably get away with it. I'm seeing big enough ones for a single pass.

I might try adding some to the RG-8 from the outside wall to the balun as well.

 

[laf]

That is going to be tricky with my feeder cable. What is in the house is LMR-400. I had a spool of that left over from an project so I used that since it had such low loss compared to RG-58.

I guess if the clip on ones will work and I dont have to loop them at all, I can probably get away with it. I'm seeing big enough ones for a single pass.

I might try adding some to the RG-8 from the outside wall to the balun as well.

Try a mix 31 on just her headphones to start. Maybe her power cord for the PC. If those work, then you can buy a tray of them from digikey. I probably bought 50 mix 77's for the switching power supply noise in the camper. taking outlets apart and putting them all over. Here's some in the power distribution panel.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Im about a mile from a Microcenter getting my oil changed. I might stop by there and see what they've got on my way back to the office.

Its weird. its only coming through on the earpiece opposite my gear, not both ears. RF does weird stuff.

 

[cobber]

A wee bit off topic, what's the best online forum for amateur radio?

 

[Cameramonkey]

A wee bit off topic, what's the best online forum for amateur radio?

Lots of them on FB if you are willing to go into that hive of scum and villainy

 

[Cameramonkey]

This looks weirdly promising. Awaiting reviews. One comment is you can change its band by cranking antenna wire in.
And yes, you are correct. That is indeed a chalk line body repurposed.
I want to know how he pulled off the connection between the wire and the coil since the whole thing is rotating. A LOT.

Reel POTA-ble EFHW Antennas

reelefhw.com

 

[Cameramonkey]

I discovered two things in the last couple days.

First, Hamsticks arent that great, but end feds rock.

I tried my 10m hamstick in the back yard last night and the noise floor was ridonkulous. So was my EF with a resonant wire. (but not quite as bad. Lots of rhytmic ticks and noise. (experienced hams already know whats up)

So today I had to go to our church to do some work. Including sealing up the chimney/flashing on the shelter house in the back 40.

I setup my new X-Tenna with what I thought was my 10m wire (was really my 20m 1/2 wave) and once I got set up, same stupid high noise floor. With a more pronounced clicking noise than at home. Hmmm. That shelter has wifi, a security camera, and a wireless bridge to tie everything back to the church.

Since I was running on my new battery box, I cut power to the shelter. RF silence. To the point my 891's scope wasnt picking up any traffic to speak of.

But a few minutes of scanning and I made two contacts. One in Chile and one in Sinaloa Mexico. Loud and clear.

Oh. And I went to harbor freight and bought one of thier $5 ammo cans for my 12/12 battery. I already had the parts for a 2m Hammocan that I never built so I scavenged parts and made this one.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Now I think I've seen it all.

 

[cobber]

Now I think I've seen it all.

What’s her INGO name?

 

[phatgemi]

Can we have a women with antenna's thread?

 

[cobber]

WLAF is pretty dead ham-wise in the VHF/UHF bands, but GMRS seems very active. We apparently have one repeater in town although that's not clear from the various online resources.

 

[Emerson Dambiggins]

Can we have a women with antenna's thread?

Is this ok?

 

[phatgemi]

Is this ok? View attachment 305637

Its a nice start!!!!

 

[Hawkeye]

Is this ok? View attachment 305637

Good, but may be missing a couple...

 

[PistolBob]

Parks On The Air - who is doing this?

My POTA station is a KX-2 with AX-1 antenna. The whole station packs up into a LowePro padded case about 11" by 11" and maybe 5" thick. My station is mainly used for CW but the KX-2 also does SSB, AM and a couple digital modes. The KX-2 has internal battery, internal antenna tuner, and the paddles attach to the radio so no cable to manage.

I started out in POTA in early 2020, with a old Heathkit HW-8, a Nye Viking Straight Key, a homebrew antenna tuner, a homebrew end fed antenna, and a SLAB for power, cables for power, cables for straight key, cables for the tuner, and a feedline for the antenna. That whole setup probably weighed over 25 lbs.

What are you guys running for POTA/SOTA?

 

[Cameramonkey]

I run an 891 and sometimes a FC50 tuner and have been testing several antennas. Havent activated a recognized park yet, but I do enjoy getting out to municipal parks so I can run 10m. The noise floor at the house is like s9 on 10m due to all of the electronics. (my WAPs are especially noisy) So for me a park table is the only place I can make contacts. Luckily my church is only 4 mins away and they have a shelterhouse in the back 40.

I just got a Reel POTA-ble antenna last week. Neat design. My tuner shows some interesting results, but I havent actually made it on the air with it yet.


I just wish we had more state parks closer to me. And now that they are adding more parks, I may petition to have Eagle Creek added since there has been some talk of some municipal parks having exceptions made. Like Central Park due to its iconic status. And since Eagle Creek is the nation's largest, I think it should be added. Heck, its bigger than most of the other state parks in the state. I'm going to wait until the initial rush ends, though.