If you are considering antenna options for your VHF mobile don’t be misled by mis-informed opinions about magnetic mount antennas. There are those who suggest magnetic mount antennas don’t provide an adequate coupling of the shield currents to the body of the vehicle. This article on COSjwt…
Some folks wish to try the six meter band for the Virginia QSO Party. This is great. Some questions were asked about how best to try this. Obviously a good beam would help, but short of that what can you try.
A new twist… This simulation places an additional wire underneath the previous 40 meter dipole up 6 feet.
As we continue are review of portable HF antennas we start to approach the bizarre. This post reviews a full half-wave antenna for 40 meters placed just 6 feet high. This is almost silly, but, like I said before, is it a whole lot more than nothing and did work.
This installment of our 40 meter antenna simulations takes our 26 foot Inverted V, described here, levels the conductors and lowers the elevation to 10 feet above ground level.
This installment of our 40 meter antenna simulations takes our 26 foot Inverted V, described here, and levels the conductors.
This is the first comparison done against our baseline 40 meter inverted V at 26 feet outlined here. The only parameter changed was increasing the height of the apex from 26 feet to 50 feet above ground level.
Continuing our look at how to make the most of simple wire antennas I am using EZNEC to compare the performance of a wire dipole antenna in various configurations. The goal here continues to be a simple to deploy antenna usable on the road for VAQP Expedition. Our initial focus will be a 40 meter half-wave design. Then we will compare this with other possible antenna geometries and also investigate whether adding a wire on or near the ground beneath the antenna helps radiate more power skyward. The baseline configuration will look like this…
The Virginia QSO Party offers hams of all capabilities and license levels the opportunity to participate big. The usual HF opportunities avail themselves to Generals to Extras. However, the high three-point-per-QSO nature of mobile QSOs make FM voice operation with 2M and 440 mobile radios effective.
If you are considering operating as expedition for the Virginia QSO Party you have choices. You could rent a van, bolt in a table, bring along a portable mast, throw in a generator, chairs, heater and you are all set. Or if you are like me and have to settle for doing something with a Taurus get these things:
Ham Help Desk Engineering