The flagpole mast broke in the wind about 9:05pm EST or so. I captured the destruction on the Wyze camera that watches it. It snapped right above the point it’s tied to the garage. Fortunately, it fell in an OK direction, so it didn’t damage anything around it.
I could try to put it back up with some spare pieces and guy it next time, or I could try the military surplus mast I picked up at a Ham Fest this past summer.
I’ll be contacting the 985 repeater digitally through Allstar for now.
I watched Youtube and saw a better way to throw the line by cradling the weight on the line and swinging the weight between my legs. It’s much more confident, powerful, and accurate. I threw my home antenna higher in the same tree. It’s so high that I needed to add more throw line now.
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K3IR/145.230MHz for the Morning Grind was clear, but low power (S3-S5) on the Quansheng and TH-9800 base. It turns out that both antennas were disconnected at the window for overnight storms.
I was seeing high SWR on the 80M EFHW: over 3:1+. I found counterpoise was chewed and broken, so I twisted it back together, but I saw no change. I disconnected the counterpoise completely, and that made no difference: still 3:1. I finally unscrewed and re-screwed the rusty alligator clamp and reattached it. That fixed it!
Previously, it seemed I’d sometimes see high SWR for a a moment, then it would recover. It seemed like giving it a little power would “clean up” something.
Today I experimented with building a 64:1 unun for an 80-meter EFHW.
My initial attempt involved 3 primary / 24 secondary windings, but I quickly found that this took up too much space on the small toroid I was using.
After some adjustments, I settled on a 2 primary / 16 secondary windings, adding a 100pF capacitor. This configuration was inspired by resources like KM1NDY’s DIY linked EFHW 64:1 antenna guide.
I’m now successfully running my home EFHW antenna on 40 meters without needing a tuner. On 17 meters, the SWR is a bit high, so I engage the tuner for that band.
This setup reminds me a lot of my previous 71-foot random wire antenna with a 9:1 balun. I’m noticing a significant increase in the number of signals I’m receiving, which suggests this new EFHW might be a considerable improvement over my old 107-foot EFRW.
I launched my 80M EFHW at home, replacing my previous random wire setup. I’ve trimmed it up and folded it back, but it still needs the tuner to touch it up. I’m seeing the expected harmonics near each ham band, which is a good sign. My next step is to build a new 49:1 transformer for it.
I setup at US-1418 for an activation. I tried to setup the 40m EFHW in a nearly vertical configuration, but my throw wasn’t high enough, so I went for a vertical 25-foot Rybakov instead. I used my 4:1 balun.
I got my activation working 10M and 15M FT8.
The slim jim I put up for APRS was hanging right next to the feed line of the higher quarter-wave antenna I use for local analog traffic. The feed line was de-tuning the slim jim, so reception of APRS traffic was almost non-existent. I could swap the antennas and the higher one worked much better, and the lower slim jim was greatly degraded for other FM traffic. Usually the BTech is on the lower slim jim, and the Quansheng is scanning on the higher quarter-wave.
To correct the problem, I pulled the 2 antennas up on separate ropes and separated them by a couple feet. The quarter-wave is still mounted higher than the slim jim.
I went to the 985 breakfast and chatted lots of Vic and Jerry.
After breakfast, I hit the parks for some POTA. I started at Middle Creek where I tested my EFHW vs the Tactical Delta Loop.
Next, I setup at State Game Land 156 down the road with the telescoping antenna for a CB walkie talkie.
I had followed the these nice directions to build my 4:1 unun to use with a Rybakov and Tactical Delta Loop, but I made a mistake:
I tested the 4:1 with the tactical delta loop. It consists of:
