31 December 2008

New Antenna

A combination of work and other priorities at home has kept me mostly off the air for the last few months. But with some free time over Christmas, I have finally got round to sorting out a new (albeit temporary) antenna.

My old doublet had already lost part of one of its arms many months ago - the wire had been rubbing against a guttering downpipe when it was windy. I had made a tempoarary repair at the time, but then a couple of weeks ago, the same arm came apart at the centre insulator - metal fatigue, I guess.

We may be having some building work done at the back to the house, which could mean I will have to move my shack. So I didn't want to spend a lot of time repairing the doublet which might become redundant in a few months.

Instead, I have rigged up a simple end-fed wire - from the shack up to the eaves, along the back of the house, then down to the back wall of the garden. I guess it is about 30m long in total. Seems to tune up OK on 30, 20 and 17 meters. I'll do some more testing over the weekend.

Hello again

Fifteen years later and I finally post something new 😀 I am keeping this blog as an archive and have started a new one for my current activ...