A lot of POTA hams use end fed half wave antennas because the parks that
they operate from have built in masts,i.e. trees, and they just toss a
line over a branch that is 30+ feet above the ground & use it to pull
the end of the antenna up to the tree. I use a 40 foot Spiderbeam mast,
and I attach a N9TAX roll up j-pole antenna to the eyelet at the top.
Immediately below the j-pole is the balun for my homemade 40, 30, 20
inverted V linked antenna. I used this antenna this past Saturday during
the Winter Field Day, and I made contacts in many states from California
to North Carolina. My inverted V antenna uses Anderson PowerPoles, and I
can attach two links of additional wire to make the antenna usable on 80
meters.
As far as the VHF antenna is concerned, the best thing to do is get it
as high as you can, and use a good coax. Check your SWR to make sure you
getting most of your RF out of the antenna & not damage your
transceiver. Don't forget lightning protection.
73
John Denison
KD5YOU
On 1/30/2023 9:52 AM, M Reiter via BVARC wrote:
I am a total noob. (new guy for the older folks).
I ordered an icom 7300 and want to do all the things i can with it
but mostly ARES, and POTA. so of course I am thinking about
antennas, I really like building antennas, however the one I built
for 146MHz receives crystal clear but does not transmit as far as I
can see. I do not have a bunch of money to spend on professional
antennas so i would like to make usable ones on the first try.
I have materials like steel tubing, aluminum tubing, pvc, wire rope
shackles, pullies, and lots of 18ga wire. a welder, knot skills, I
am thinking putting two steel 20' tubes up with guy wires would be
easy enough, maybe even could get them as high as 30ft, and this is
great for 10m 20m, but when I start to think of 40m and needing a 65ft
dipole, 65ft in the air, I feel defeated. are these "rules" really
just best possible requirements and putting a 65ft dipole at 30ft will
be fine forPOTA, and maybe even some DX on the right days or nights?
I am intending to build out my "shack" in an RV because I have some
Gypsy blood somewhere way back. otherwise I would just build two 70ft
towers in my back yard. I will assume that 80m is not really a mobile
band, and I would only attempt it if I was really bored and living in
the desert. I did order an antenna from a website that builds ground
radial vertical antennas, for 10-80m, I assume this will work in the
USA. and maybe an occasional DX on the perfect days, Obviously I have
been reading too many internet sites and my information may be very
flawed so I am asking yall as I know you know the truth.
what is the absolute minimum I need to run some 10,20,40M dipoles in a
park. how high? do I need an analyser? good swr meter? some proper
1:1 baluns? dummy load? other?
I know I should have gone to the field meet.
Marc KI5ZHO heights
[email protected], for PM.
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