I am finally starting to work on my station and antennas. I lost my 160 L
and part of my 80 meter half square last winter (March) and I started to
check into getting them fixed or replaced. The half square is caught in a
branch so I can't bring it down and part of the 160L
is stuck in another tree top. If anyone knows of someone who can climb a
tree for me let me know. I can rescue the 80 half square
but the 160L looks like a lost project but may blow out during the winter
storms.
I am putting up a special design 160 L (half size) in a front tree (away
from the other wire fragments) it is 136 feet long and it will operate as a
half wave L (see the QST article in the 1977 QST). The antenna is a
Mor-Gain adapted design so it will work on 80 also. The QST article said
this type of 1/2 wave L will give fairly good Dx coverage plus skywave for
short skip. I also have my Mor-Gain half wave vertical with slope toward
to the East (the antenna that get me ZS, C9, D68, PY0) and it seems to get
into EU well as its mostly vertical...the down side is it poor for short
skip. This is why I need the half square back up as its great for N/S DX
and short skip.
I also started working on my station set up. I have had the single PC two
monitor set up going with writelog (saves having to keep up with
which transceiver is used in SO2R). I have writelog but need to upgrade to
the latest version and again attempt to use as a general logger too. The
Main HF set up will be The Amp Supply amp and FT920. The WARC set up is an
FT980 with Henry 2K. The low band set up is the original FT980 and the
8877. I can fully SO2R with the 980's and partially with the low band 980
and the 920. I will have to wire up the old Nel-Tech DVK to work with the
WARC. I also have two boatanchor/classic set ups. The wife wants me to cut
back especially in light of the Docs not allowing me to contest seriously
...bottom line she wants me to jettison some gear
I have a AM station and Galaxy GT550 for sale if anyone is interested.
Again if anyone knows of someone who will climb one tree for me please let
me know. Otherwise I will call my tree man and negotiate.
73 Dave K4JRB
PS I will try to be on to work all you local guys and gals in the SSB SS.
Same for the ARRL 10 meter.
2nd PS I don't like to send SSB audio with a sound card so I use the
DVK's....too much chance to get RFI and since I use HC4 elements
I don't want the audio anywhere but on my freq (no splatter etc). I also
don't like the discreet sound of the program responses so I say the worked
stations call but 59GA or 5905 is DVKed! CW and PSK31 seem Ok on the
soundcard but not SSB.
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