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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:36:56 AM EDT
Yesterday was nice, 60 degrees and light wind, so a friend came over to help me get my fan dipole built and up in the air. It has 40m, 20m, 10m, and 6m. That's the longest I could go for now. Of course, last night a front came through with winds gusting to 60 mph and temps dropping from 60 to 6. I was happy to see that it was still up this morning. Last night before the wind storm I was able to make contacts in Wyoming, Ohio, and Florida on 40m and a bunch of local contacts in MO and AR on 10m. I still need to add a support line so that all the weight is not on the 40m wire and add stretchers to eliminate the sag in the other wires.
You guys were right, of course, HF is where it's at. 
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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:42:50 AM EDT
[#1]
Congrats!
Nice looking dipole. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:42:56 AM EDT
[#2]
Very nice
 . Enjoy!
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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:50:22 AM EDT
[#3]
Looks great
you can work the world with that setup. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:54:56 AM EDT
[#4]
Congrats!
I am near my radio if you want to make an ARFCOM contact on 20M. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:56:14 AM EDT
[#5]
There ya go, nice setup! Your in bussiness now.
HS |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 9:54:04 AM EDT
[#6]
niiiice.
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Posted: 1/27/2014 10:09:43 AM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Congrats! I am near my radio if you want to make an ARFCOM contact on 20M. Sorry, went downstairs for lunch. 20m seems pretty busy right now. Looking for a clear frequency. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 10:54:05 AM EDT
[#8]
Did you check into the Ancient Modulators 6m net last night? I was grilling some supper and thought I heard you talking about this antenna.
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Posted: 1/27/2014 11:27:40 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Did you check into the Ancient Modulators 6m net last night? I was grilling some supper and thought I heard you talking about this antenna. Why, yes, I did. I'm John in Catawissa. 
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Posted: 1/27/2014 12:13:07 PM EDT
[#10]
Looks great! Gotta love homebrew projects. Try loading it on 15 Meters. You just might be surprised by a "bonus" band!
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Posted: 1/27/2014 12:49:53 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Looks great! Gotta love homebrew projects. Try loading it on 15 Meters. You just might be surprised by a "bonus" band! I did and it works great there, too. I don't have an antenna tuner yet, so I'm living with a fairly narrow slice of each band with low (<2) SWR. Even so I'm making lots of contacts. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 1:39:54 PM EDT
[#12]
Great news, that's a good looking dipole! 73, Rob
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Posted: 1/27/2014 1:52:03 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Why, yes, I did. I'm John in Catawissa.
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Did you check into the Ancient Modulators 6m net last night? I was grilling some supper and thought I heard you talking about this antenna. Why, yes, I did. I'm John in Catawissa.
I was listening to the 6m net and heard you check in. I was busy grilling some supper for the family, so I didn't have time to pop in and say hello. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:01:40 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryI still need to add a support line so that all the weight is not on the 40m wire and add stretchers to eliminate the sag in the other wires. Quote HistoryI still need to add a support line so that all the weight is not on the 40m wire and add stretchers to eliminate the sag in the other wires. Sag? The antenna just looks fine to me, and getting wire straighter will not make it work any better. You did a good job. But putting a "messenger line" so that the weight is supported there instead of on the 40 m wires is something you need to do. Quoted:
Looks great! Gotta love homebrew projects. Try loading it on 15 Meters. You just might be surprised by a "bonus" band! You bet. 15 meters will easily work from the 40 meter elements. And the OP can work the whole band on any of those bands, as well as 15 meters, with a tuner. A piece of cake! --as opposed to a pizza pie.
I'll bet JC can even work 17 meters via tuner. JC, good job! |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:09:39 PM EDT
[#15]
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:15:14 PM EDT
[#16]
I guess it must be working OK. The first contact I made this morning on 40m was a guy in St. George, British Columbia -- 1,848 miles.
I know that's not all that far for most of y'all, but it's a first for me.
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:28:02 PM EDT
[#17]
40 Meters can be amazing after dark. I worked Algeria and South Africa Friday evening around 11 PM Eastern w/50 watts & a dipole using CW.
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:34:02 PM EDT
[#18]
yours is way neater than mine
well done! |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:38:54 PM EDT
[#19]
That's an excellent looking antenna and I bet it performs just as well as it looks! A textbook example if I ever saw one!
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Posted: 1/27/2014 5:55:03 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
That's an excellent looking antenna and I bet it performs just as well as it looks! A textbook example if I ever saw one! Thanks. It's "text book" because I don't know what I'm doing . . . yet. I wanted to copy something that works as closely as I could. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 6:10:20 PM EDT
[#21]
Did you just calculate and cut the wire, or did you do any fine tuning?
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Posted: 1/27/2014 6:28:13 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Did you just calculate and cut the wire, or did you do any fine tuning? I calculated and cut. I picked a frequency in the middle of each band to get the starting length. I built a simple dipole for just 6m last week and found that I needed about 1.5" less length on each end than the calculator said to get it into the lower third of the band, so I used that SWAG for the other elements. I cut the wire about 6" longer than the calculator said and then folded it back on itself at the calculated length minus 1.5" on each end. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart. ETA: It got too late in the day to do any tuning . . . then the front came through. |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 6:44:14 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I calculated and cut. I picked a frequency in the middle of each band to get the starting length. I built a simple dipole for just 6m last week and found that I needed about 1.5" less length on each end than the calculator said to get it into the lower third of the band, so I used that SWAG for the other elements. I cut the wire about 6" longer than the calculator said and then folded it back on itself at the calculated length minus 1.5" on each end. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart. ETA: It got too late in the day to do any tuning . . . then the front came through. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Did you just calculate and cut the wire, or did you do any fine tuning? I calculated and cut. I picked a frequency in the middle of each band to get the starting length. I built a simple dipole for just 6m last week and found that I needed about 1.5" less length on each end than the calculator said to get it into the lower third of the band, so I used that SWAG for the other elements. I cut the wire about 6" longer than the calculator said and then folded it back on itself at the calculated length minus 1.5" on each end. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart. ETA: It got too late in the day to do any tuning . . . then the front came through. that's when you're SUPPOSED to be doing it |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 7:02:32 PM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:...I don't have an antenna tuner yet... If you want to try your hand at building one from a kit, take a look at this: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-941EK Not many know of it because they don't advertise it |
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Posted: 1/27/2014 8:14:06 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If you want to try your hand at building one from a kit, take a look at this: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-941EK Not many know of it because they don't advertise it Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:...I don't have an antenna tuner yet... If you want to try your hand at building one from a kit, take a look at this: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-941EK Not many know of it because they don't advertise it I will seriously consider that. I enjoy the hands-on of building a lot. Have soldering irons, will travel (but not far). |
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