[TenTec] 17 Meter Antenna

[Jim Allen]

Of course not!  No one would chose this while free to put up any kind of
antenna you wanted.  These will appeal, though, to those who are limited in
what they are allowed, by finances, or HOA Nazis, XYL Nazis and other
terrorists who infringe on one's freedom of action.

In terms of being a competitive contester, no.  In terms of being on the
air, participating in contests and having a good time, not so bad.

I was gratified to see I was high score in 1E QRP for 2014 Field Day in
West Gulf, running 5 watts to a home brew S9v31 clone with Petlowany coils
for radials.  I made contacts all over the place, from British Columbia to
Puerto Rico and San Diego to New Hampshire, with a modest antenna running
low power.  Only a few stations I called did not come back to me, in a
little over 7 or 8 hours of operation.  I was happier with that result than
a lot of 'big guns' were with their score!

73 de W6OGC  Jim Allen

On Sun, Nov 23, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP <Rick at dj0ip.de> wrote:

> I appreciate the performance one can get out of these magnetic loops, but
> they are certainly nothing for use in a contest.  You have to re-tune them
> every 5 or 6 kHz.  Of course since there are no contests on 17m . . .
>
> 73 - Rick, DJ0IP
> (Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Allen
> Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2014 10:15 PM
> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] 17 Meter Antenna
>
> When you cost out Rich's design, it is not much more than other antenna
> options.  By the time you get some No. 14 wire, coax, a mast, guying parts,
> etc you have likely spent as much.  The vacuum variables used are both
> sides
> of $100 mostly from Russia on eBay and the rest of the materials are less
> than $100 typically, which can give you an antenna that works from say 40M
> to 10M sometimes.  The helically loaded magnetic loop has attracted a great
> deal of attention from HOA dwellers and others in antenna restricted
> circumstances, although the remote tuning can be a complication.
>
> 73 de W6OGC  Jim Allen
>
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Reed <w4jz at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> > Very good info guys.  I'm going to throw another antenna into the mix
> > that I also have been thinking about. It's a magnetic loop designed by
> > Rich K8NDS.  You can find info on his antennas at qrz.com &
> > http://www.antennastealth.com/   He also has a u tube doing comparisons
> > between the loop & doublet on 40 meters.
> >
> > I worked Rich some time ago on his 10-20M loop on 10 meters which is
> > up 6 feet high.  He got down to 15 milliwatts on the phone portion & I
> > was still able to copy him enough to understand what he was saying. I
> > have a old
> > (1989) 2 El Hy-Gain tri band beam  on a very high hill which I know
> > helped a lot for me to receive his weak signal.  But I've done this
> > many times on CW into Europe, but never on phone anywhere.  Band
> > conditions were not that great, but for 10 were pretty good.  I was
> > using a Ten Tec Argonaut VI which I will say has a very good receiver.
> > Coax length is 150 feet of Belden RG-213 into beam that is only up 17
> > feet on a home-brew wooden tower bolted to a utility building.  I'm
> > sitting on a huge rock with only 18 inches of top soil.
> >
> > I was impressed with Rich's antenna, but that vacuum variable
> > capacitor are not cheap. When he went down to 15 milliwatts that was
> > what got my attention.  100 watts on ten meters into a wire on the
> > ground will still make contacts if band is open, but going down to the
> > milliwatt power is all about the antenna & coax.
> >
> > Would also be a good antenna for those in a HOA subdivision.
> >
> > 73,
> > Reed  W4JZ
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> >
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