[TowerTalk] Was "43ft Vertical Feeding
Dennis OConnor
ad4hk2004 at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 24 08:26:32 EST 2008
Pete - right on!
I am dismayed by the lack of the old ham spirit that I see in todays operators...
Pete pointed it out quite clearly...
12 relays @ $3 a pop - $36
Roll of quarter inch dia. soft copper tubing (home depot) - I dunno, maybe $50
2X4 Sheet of .060" aluminium - maybe $50 ( I buy a half dozen full sheets at a time so I don't know price of small amounts) Lots less if you harvest some scrap aluminium from old freezers, etc.
Anyway, cobble up a test coil by winding some turns of #14 on a 2 - 3 inch pvc pipe and get an old variable condenser and some jumpers, and use them to test tune each band... Measure the inductance and capacitance you find for each band......
Wind a coil from the copper tubing to the found value(s)..
Make the condensers by cutting two plates from the aluminium sheet and spacing them apart with little buttons of plastic - lexan from the hardware works good - and adjusting the overlap of the plates for final tune... When tuned squirt a dab of crazy glue on the buttons to lock the plates into position...
Repeat 5 more times and voila - 6 bands
Another $20 for a covered plastic storage bin to mount the parts and relays -
and for ~$150 you have a six band, switchable tuner, that will take ALL the power your amp can make and then some....
And for lots less than $150 if you have some scrounging skills...
denny / k8do
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