Bob, you're right. I'm experimenting with an "E-H" antenna right now at home. It's 20-30 dB down from a full-sized vertical, but I make contacts easily with it, and 9J2CA came back to me first call i
Hi Jan, I don't have any ground plane system installed with the E-H, and although I did not check what you suggested (short-circuit the end of the feedline, and just use that), I did a near-field pro
Jason, The G-M Engineering 4-legged roof towers are pretty good, and if you reinforce per the instructions that come with each tower, you should be in good shape. Of course, I'd pick the taller (hous
All good answers regarding lubricating SS hardware and Nylock nuts, etc. What I do now is avoid the Nylock nuts altogether and use a lockwasher and two nuts (second one to lock the first) in the crit
I agree LMR400 and LMR400UF are both _not_ direct-burial cable types. To be "direct burial," technically, the construction should be flooded, and these Times products are not. But people can do whate
I've never really had problems with good quality RG213/U, just burying it without additional protection; however, not having any problems doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. In my amateur instal
Hi Tom, I disagree that LMR400 "handles a lot more power" than RG213/U. It may handle a bit more, under well-matched conditions, for the same reason that it has less loss: That being, it has a larger
Re: Rotating LMR400, many will say it's fine to rotate and "it works fine for me." Although it may work fine, I've noted visible deterioration in the center conductor after only 50 or so sample rotat
I've used double-braided Dacron rope from Synthetic Textiles for many years, and found it always stretches -- how much depends on how much tension you use. I've never used clamps and thimbles on this
It should be noted that "loss" figures are all published by the manufacturers, or in amateur publications, but are not controlled nor maintained, nor even listed, in the governing military specificat
I've used cinder blocks or cement blocks for this. Heavy, cheap and strong enough to do the job. Be sure nobody can walk under it, though. One never knows when the rope will give way...! WB2WIK/6 "If
If the West Nile virus lands in Los Angeles, it will have to be carried by something other than mosquitos, since we don't have any. Last time I saw a mosquito in L.A. it was flying in slow circles, o
[Steve Katz] Yep. Mosquitos don't need fresh water, but they do need still ground water, of which there really isn't any around here. I've lived in L.A. for 14+ years and have yet to see my first mo
[Steve Katz] I'd ask: What is the tower and what will be mounted on it? Such a decision requires a "system view," not just that it's an 11 ft. roof tower. (Examples abound, but here are some: If the
It will, if you are trying to make a 1/2-wave, open-ended stub. "If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti
You might consider how important F/B is to you...the TH11 is excellent on all bands; the StepIR is good on 20m and degrades on the higher bands... WB2WIK/6 "If everything seems under control, you're
Hi Steve, Not according to their own published data...the StepIR changes element length for optimization, but element spacing remains fixed and obviously cannot be ideal over an octave of bandwidth.
(WB2WIK)- A good friend of mine used large trees for guy anchors on his 70' R-25. Screweyes into the trees, with stranded steel guy wire wrapped around the trees at the same points to further secure