Just put up a Butternut HF2V vertical (80-40-30 meters) with the 30 meter
add on kit. I buried 19 radials each 70 feet long 1 inch under the ground.
Why 19? I got board. Why 70 feet? Seemed a good length although they only
had to be the length of the vertical, 32 feet.
The vertical seems to be working great so far. I haven't had a chance to
compare transmit to my 270 foot center fed with 450 ohm ladder line
terminating to a balun yet. The 270 footer is up at 50 feet.
The vertical is only 1/2 S unit or so below the 270 foot center fed on
receive, and sometimes is better.
I have an 8 foot ground rod at the base of the vertical and a DX Engineering
radial plate that made the radial connections easy.
This HF2V also has a 75 ohm matching section because of the added 30 meter
kit.
As for RFI and the Orion. I also had to re-invent my shack setup such as
moving the 450 ladder line outside the house and establishing a good earth
ground that is 2, 8 foot ground rods outside the 1st floor shack window that
terminates on a single point ground connection in the shack. Water pipe
didn't cut it!
I also found that running the SSB menu "TX AUDIO SOURCE" on BOTH when
running SSB high power screwed up my audio, big time. Setting it to "MIC"
cured that. I run PSK31 using the AUX input and when set at BOTH the Orion
didn't like what was coming in the AUX input when on SSB.
By the way, the Orion is working great!!! Good to know that it is up with
the best receivers made.
Just wish it had a larger range internal auto tuner. Maybe Ten Tec will come
out with a larger range internal tuner or upgrade the existing one?
All is quiet now!
George
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