On 12/25/06, Bob Scupp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Thank you for the warm welcome and information on AM activity.
Everyone with comments is always welcomed.
Good to see you again, Bob. Been a while.
Actually I have a G5RV antenna. I seem to remember it is for 10-80 meters. I was originally thinking of using the tower I mentioned to hold the center feed of an inverted V, with the broadsides facing East-West(?). The ends would maybe about 15-20 feet above ground. However, being out here in the country with no strict municipal or other restrictions, I can also experiment with other antennas.
I have never been on 160 meters. Sounds like another band on AM to experiment with.
I ran, for the longest time, an inverted Vee on 75m, because of my 'restricted' space. Until a year ago (or more, now) when I used another lenght of wire, attached one end to the existing 75m Inv Vee, and then closed in the bottom of the antenna . That made it a loop, with another ~120' of wire, in addition to the 120' of wire that was up there. What I wound up with was a full-wave Delta Loop installed in a Vertical Plane, and it works great. I am constantly amazed by the signal reports I get from that antenna. I think the biggest gain I got, was when I switched from coax to ladder-line for feed-line to the antenna. It just got that much better, when I closed in the loop. The actual formula for the loop length is 1005 / f(MHz) but when you feed it with 50' of 450 ohm ladder line, a lot of sins are forgiven. ;-) Although I don't think it's high enough, 60' is a good enough start for a center-support for the 450 ohm ladder-line and loop feed point. (not to mention, it's better than nothing ;->) 1005 / 1.9 = 529' of wire. Typically, that would work out to around 176' per leg. So, you can't make it a perfect triangle. So what? Stretch it out as far as you can, and feed it at the top of the antenna. The antenna would work on 160m, it'd be 2 wavelengths on 75, and would exhibit even more gain on the higher bands. As long as you have a good wire-tuner from the rig to the feed-line, you'll be great.
I agree with you in that the early predictions for Cycle 24 looks like it is going to be a whooper! Scientists are predicting a peak around 2010-2011 of 160 for a sunspot peak. I guess my timing is about right on.
For the higher bands. Nothing more for the lower bands, but more noise ;)
Again Jim thanks for the advice.
Jim's a good source, Bob. -- Operating your AM rig without a scope is like driving our car at night without headlights.(~K4KYV) 73 = Best Regards -Geoff/W5OMR- Merry Christmas! ______________________________________________________________ AMRadio mailing list List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Partner Website: http://www.amfone.net Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected]
