Posted: 3/14/2015 3:34:20 PM EDT
| Have a G5RV full 80 meter to install. Two options are 1) laying on the roof and can guarantee the HOA is not going to see it or 2) Hanging in a tree approximately 30 feet away from the house. Both will be at the same height and orientation. A little more hassle for the tree, but can be done with some work. Is it worth it to run it over to the tree or should I just set it on the roof? |
| Half of my dipole is on my roof. It is held up with a couple fence insulators. The other end is stretched to the detached garage. It is very low visibility and made a bunch of contacts. The only reason I am setup like that is because it is my only option. I say go for the tree or try a vertical. |
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You may not have the room but a bonus of a vertical is it takes me 30 seconds to put or take down my 43' one up. I'm not concerned with an HOA but it's nice for bad weather and hurricanes. Two post to undoe by hand, lift it up and lay it down. Pretty quick and easy single handed. Just an idea, you may not have room for a radial field etc... |
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The distance from tuner to antenna is about 100 feet of line. I am not able to get the dummy load to give any reading of relevance. I think my grandpas MFJ Versa Tuner V may be my problem. I struggle to get power to show up and tuning is like it has a mind of its own. Do the needles on these ever need maintenance?   |
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Switch the tuner to the Dummy Load position. You should read full power on both the radio and the SWR meter on the tuner. SWR needle should be close to zero. If not, check the short coax cable that connects the radio to the tuner. Let us know what you read out.
P.S. Don't forget to reduce power when tuning to be on the safe side. The POWER button on the tuner should be out (switched to 300W range).You do tune with the radio switched to RTTY or AM mode, right? What do you read on your radio's internal Power and SWR meters when you tune? I have almost identical tuner and it works great, even with a full legal limit amplifier. They are very easy to repair if you do find a problem is in the tuner. |
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Update: This process is me getting my own rig on the air for the first time. It has been frustrating having my license for over 2 years without ever making a single HF contact. All of your help has been VERY appreciated. Into the dummy load - I metered up to 90 watts. Shows +/-83 watts. Finally wrapped by brain around the tune after that. I thought that the tuner only had to be set based on the manual charts. Something about reading the whole manual made the next few steps work. Worked through the process and was able to get some progress. Also, thanks for the Rtty tip. Antenna - turned down power to 5 watts. Worked the tuner as directed in the manual. Tuned down to 1.1+/- or less on 20 with full power! I have not figured out how to read the internal meter on the rig yet. Will post that once I know. Thank you again for everything to this point. My grandpa, K6AFV, is still alive just barely at age 96 and I want to get on the air before he passes. Now I am one step closer thanks to this forum. 73 B |
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Quoted:
Update: This process is me getting my own rig on the air for the first time. It has been frustrating having my license for over 2 years without ever making a single HF contact. All of your help has been VERY appreciated. Into the dummy load - I metered up to 90 watts. Shows +/-83 watts. Finally wrapped by brain around the tune after that. I thought that the tuner only had to be set based on the manual charts. Something about reading the whole manual made the next few steps work. Worked through the process and was able to get some progress. Also, thanks for the Rtty tip. Antenna - turned down power to 5 watts. Worked the tuner as directed in the manual. Tuned down to 1.1+/- or less on 20 with full power! I have not figured out how to read the internal meter on the rig yet. Will post that once I know. Thank you again for everything to this point. My grandpa, K6AFV, is still alive just barely at age 96 and I want to get on the air before he passes. Now I am one step closer thanks to this forum. 73 B I'm on the radio all day today if you want to schedule a QSO to see how your rig is working. |
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Thanks for the invite guys. I will take you up on them once I can predict when I can get on the air. Finally got out in the shack tonight. No contacts still. Playing with the tuning I am getting more SWR as my watts go up. Is this supposed to happen or am I doing something wrong?
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To read power out on the 857D, press and hold the FUNC button til the radio beeps, then turn the SELECT knob (bottom left) until the display shows M-i on the left side then press the A button or B button to switch what is being displayed on the left of the display in TX mode. 2 presses between PWR and SWR. If the radio is used, you may want to default it before going any further. Hold FUNC and power the unit on to reset any goofy menu settings the previous user may have set up. Hold HOME and power on to nuke everything. |
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Quoted:
Thanks for the invite guys. I will take you up on them once I can predict when I can get on the air. Finally got out in the shack tonight. No contacts still. Playing with the tuning I am getting more SWR as my watts go up. Is this supposed to happen or am I doing something wrong? yes as power go,s up your swr will go up too.. jes,t go slow and keep tuning..and keep a pin and paper to right down the settings,,, |
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Quoted: If the radio is used, you may want to default it before going any further. Hold FUNC and power the unit on to reset any goofy menu settings the previous user may have set up. Hold HOME and power on to nuke everything. |
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Radio is used. Can I nuke it and not lose the filters that were installed? Quoted:
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If the radio is used, you may want to default it before going any further. Hold FUNC and power the unit on to reset any goofy menu settings the previous user may have set up. Hold HOME and power on to nuke everything. The YF filters are hardware, reset just removes any settings and/or memory data, depending on which reset you use. If you mean the DSP filter settings, then yes, the HOME reset will reset those settings. |
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Quoted:
Thanks for the invite guys. I will take you up on them once I can predict when I can get on the air. Finally got out in the shack tonight. No contacts still. Playing with the tuning I am getting more SWR as my watts go up. Is this supposed to happen or am I doing something wrong? G5RV is a non resonant antenna. You should be able to bring SWR to within 1.2:1 on most bands. It's very important to run the twin-lead feed line portion of the antenna straight down, perpendicular to the antenna. Also make sure it's not near any conductive objects. SWR should not change when you change the output power. The amount or reflected power will change but not SWR. You can do a full reset. The optional mechanical filters will not be affected. The radio "knows" automatically if a filter is installed. I think you can change meter settings to display power through the shortcut menu, without having to go to the main menu. The shortcut menu is very convenient and it contains menu items that you would use more often. Also make sure to turn on IPO on 160-20m bands. It turns off pre-amplifier as it's not needed on those bands and you'll notice huge reduction in noise while maintaining good RX sensitivity. The manual talks about doing this. |
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Did a full reset on the rig. Also got the feed of the antenna as close to vertical as conditions would allow. Result was that I made my first contact tonight! Ended the night with 3 total. Thanks again or everyone's help. The next step is getting the 811h up and running.  |
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Quoted:
Did a full reset on the rig. Also got the feed of the antenna as close to vertical as conditions would allow. Result was that I made my first contact tonight! Ended the night with 3 total. Thanks again or everyone's help. The next step is getting the 811h up and running.
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