[UK-CONTEST] Christmas Project

[Dave Lawley]

Here's something to do in the mild weather over Xmas: put up an
80m dipole. Then you'll be ready for the new RSGB 80m Club
Championship contests, as well as AFS.

Don't worry if your garden isn't 130ft long: you can squeeze an 80m
dipole into a 50ft by 15ft garden, or an even smaller one with ingenuity.
Get the centre up as high as possible, and make sure the angle
between each leg, at the centre, is at least 90 degrees. 

The ends can be bent around the garden, but get as much 
separation between the bent-back wires as possible. Overall
length will depend on whether it is bent or straight, and how near
the ends are to the ground but start with 134ft and trim an equal
amount off each end until it resonates in the CW part of the band. 
For the phone contests, no need to cut the wires, just fold back each 
end by approximately 3ft to shift resonance about 160kHz into the 
phone section.

The 80m Club Championship is made up of a series of 90-minute 
contests, starting at 20.00gmt. January's events are 
Monday 5th - CW
Wednesday 14th - SSB
Thursday 22nd - Data (RTTY/PSK)

Full details are on the HFCC web site  www.rsgbhfcc.org

My next project is to make up the interface cables and learn how to use 
MMTTY ready for the datamodes contest on 22nd January.

Merry Christmas

Dave G4BUO