[OT] HAM Radio Folks?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Made a contact in "The Gambia" last night. Yes, that's a country and I'm sad to say I had no idea. (hint: it's in Africa, on the west coast. Also Russia, Italy, and Switzerland last night.

A few months ago I was chatting with a guy on 40-meter and it turns out he's one block away from me. Ham is funny that way.
 
passedpawn said:
Necessary for satellites because they tumble through the sky. Without circularly-polarized, the reception would waver / dropout a lot. Or so I've been told.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what the write-up I read said. Totally makes sense. The "circular" threw me but as soon as I saw a sketch I understood it wasn't quite that but it did provide four quads of angular coverage...

Cheers!
 
I'm in an active connection right now to Northern Ireland. While I'm posting this, I made another to Lebanon. I like DX on HF.

1677720410316.png
 
day_trippr said:
Now I'm wondering what a circularly polarized transmission looks like
Click to expand...
It's like squinting and twisting your arm around, only with fancy stuff.

When I was studying it was a lot like the trig/calc for sine wave math. Read it, understood it for the test, then it's just something I know is there.
 
Nerd alert! I connected my VNA (network analyzer) to my antenna and checked out the SWR (standing wave ratio) of the bands that I care about. 160M/80M/40M/20M/10M/6M. I put markers on those. The SWR is under 3 for all but 160M. Getting under 3:1 is important because my Icom IC-7300 has an internal tuner that will tune frequencies that are under a SWR of 3. I've previously played with this long wire antenna, changing its length, to get to these numbers.

There is a low cost version of one of these meters called a NanoVNA. I have no experience, but it seems pretty popular. Anyone hoping to build their own antennas should check it out.


1678421784232.png
 
passedpawn said:
I connected my VNA (network analyzer) to my antenna and checked out the SWR (standing wave ratio) of the bands that I care about. 160M/80M/40M/20M/10M/6M. I put markers on those. The SWR is under 3 for all but 160M.
Click to expand...
"One Antenna to Rule Them All."

What kind?

passedpawn said:
There is a low cost version of one of these meters called a NanoVNA. I have no experience, but it seems pretty popular. Anyone hoping to build their own antennas should check it out.
Click to expand...
I have a NanoVNA here. I've turned it on, that's about it. I'll have to connect it to my JPole to see how it actually tests out.

I did order an EFHW kit. I know one can make these but without the parts and instructions it's sorta hard - so this is me paying a few extra bucks for an Elmer to show me how to do it my first time.
 
My antenna is EFHW also. It's 65', which makes it a 40M antenna. It was a kit I got on the ARRL website. You had to fully construct (wrap, solder) the the matching transformer (unun), but that exercise was kinda fun. I've got another 6M directional antenna up in the air that I rarely use - not much going with 6M right now.
 
I've spent a lot more time brewing beer over the last few years than fooling around with my radios, but I figured I'd say howdy. I had just started studying for the Extra exam, but then I started a new job that has given me 90 days to get an IT certification, so I'll get back to the exam when I have some free time.

Cheers,

WE1RDO (It's my actual call. I get a lot of disbelievers on the air.)
 

Similar threads

A
  • Sticky
pH Meter Calibration
4 5 6
Replies
222
Views
109K
Silver_Is_Money
Silver_Is_Money
sirsloop
Big Bro on the prowl
Replies
26
Views
2K
david_42
david_42
Yuri_Rage
DIY Wireless Streaming Audio
Replies
34
Views
15K
98EXL
98EXL

Latest posts

Back
Top