I ran out to
Susquehanna Riverlands State Park (US-9719)
to test the EFHW again.
This time I tied it to a bush
and a picnic table
and raised the center
with the fishing pole mast.
I took the time
to sweep all the bands
with the X6100’s
built-in analyzer app.
40m looked like it could
stand to have the wire
slightly shorter,
but when I transmitted,
the SWR looked fine.
I saw about 1.5:1 SWR
on 40, 20, and 15.
10 was a little off,
so I guess
I’ll add the 100pf capacitor
that most people use.
The tuner made 12m and 17m work,
so I made FT8 contacts
on 40m, 20m, 15m, and 17m.
I was also trying out some
of the combo winder/unun
I 3d printed and made some notes.
I’ll post my remix soon
of another person’s OpenSCAD code.
I like the all-in-one designs
that wrap up into one package,
but I wonder how much that
will hinder my random experimentation
with antennas.
While transmitting,
I noticed the Evolve 3 laptop’s
mouse would stop responding.
I had seen this
on other laptops
using the 1/4 wave HF vertical.
I added the common mode choke
to the feed line near the radio,
and that cleared up.
There was already a choke near the antenna,
but I guess it wasn’t enough.
I love when I can see a clear cause and effect
or problem and solution.
