Fred,
I think you've hit on the real major issues. I always state an
antennas performance can not be measured by SWR alone, and that there is
no one perfect antenna. I suggest that these are just a few areas that a
ham really need to worry/think about; can he make his radio accept the
load, is his line loss at least close to rational, does he want to work
local stations meaning out to a few hundred miles, or does he want to go
for a 5BDXCC. All of the rest of it are just a good discussion topics,
taken one at a time.
For my part, I run two antennas on my urban lot, a center fed 80
meter inverted L and a vertical 20 meter center fed dipole. I use the L
for 80-30 meters and the vertical dipole for all else. I haven't a clue
what the SWR is, but my built in tuner deals with it nicely. All on my
feed line are ladder line connected via a Balun Designs current balun.
I'm serious about finishing my 5BDXCC, and all I need is to finish up on
80. What I'm saying is I have found it does not take an elaborate
antenna farm to really reach out and touch someone.
My recommendations are to use a ground independent antenna if you
can and feed it with the lowest loss line that makes sense for your
situation. All the rest is seat in the chair time and listen or call CQ.
73,
Barry
K3NDM
------ Original Message ------
From: "Fred Moore" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: 8/13/2017 10:37:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Is it my KX3/antenna or is it lousy band condx?
There has been a happening in the last 15 or so years. It seems that
every antenna is "the best we have ever had" this statement is
directly
proportional to the number of people who study theory to those who just
read others comments on the internet. Or as some say, the SWR is 1:1 so
its a great antenna. BTW I love my dummy load for EXACTLY that reason.
I can clearly say that I have had enough different antenna's over the
last 35 years that I know what is a good antenna and one that is not..
plus I even understand most of the theory. Today a new ham dumps
125-150 bucks in to a 5 dollar pre-manufactured wire antenna, and says,
this is the best antenna around even if he has never used any other
antenna. See how good it works I even have an S9 noise floor, no other
antenna is this sensitive, when all the wile he is running 30db of
preamp he does not need.
Simply amazes me.. that some think they even have enough education or
experience to even have a meaning full opinion.. but away they go on
eham or qrz about how good something is. Lucky most on Elecraft don't
all into this category.
We do have many good radio related sites out there, examples are those
who show current band conditions, low power reporting sites to check
your own propagation etc.. those we should learn to use as they are
meaningful but don't assume the to be 100% all of the time,
I remember many years ago when I was elmering a new ham, he built a 15
meter beam, when he decided after one week that the 40/15 dipole I
built
for him was just not working, I loaned him a HW16, he complained for
weeks that the something was wrong, I went over one Saturday to see
what
actually was wrong, a spin across the band showed no signals, one CQ
with 50 watts and from Ohio I was the pileup of European stations, I
worked about 5 contacts, looked at him, and said, "So what is wrong",
he says.. "what knob did you turn when I wasn't looking" did you ever
call CQ "no says he" "I think you need to actually use the radio
before
you decide something is wrong" says I.
If the band propagation sites say the band is dead, and your radio is
not hearing anything, most likely it is not your radio or your antenna.
If you are hearing S9 noise and unhook the antenna and it goes away, I
will make you a bet that your radio is not broken..
And yes all of the switching supplies didn't exist 20 years ago, so we
need to do things we didn't have to do before with toroids and other
things that we didn't do before, there is even some noise sources we
can't fix as others are legally generating it. Me thinks the days of a
usable -127db noise floor are few and far between, thanks mostly to
what
our government is allowing to happen...
FWIW/WYP.. regards.. Fred
Fred Moore
email: [email protected]
[email protected]
phone: 321-217-8699
On 8/13/17 8:43 AM, Bob McGraw K4TAX wrote:
Forget about "what you've been told". Do your own research using
various publications such as ARRL Antenna Book or other like
publications. Personally in the "I've been told" area, it seems hams
have more incomplete and inaccurate information than correct and
complete information.
Bob, K4TAX
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 13, 2017, at 7:31 AM, rich hurd WC3T <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi all, particularly Walter (since he mentioned it):
I've been bedeviled by a question with multiple possible answers.
I'm a fan of the idea of using a field antenna as Walter describes by
using
a BNC - to binding post connector directly to the radio.
I'm leery of that because it flies in the face of what I've been told
about
these antennas: I'm assuming the radio BNC connection is unbalanced
and
the wires form a balanced antenna, more or less. I've seen
deployments
with end-fed 9:1 baluns and without, even documented on YouTube with
great
successes.
I can tell you that the 9:1 balun setup doesn't seem to be working
for my
current field deployment but I'd sure like to understand why a balun
isn't
recommended in this setup. I'd love to just take the wire and put it
on my
WonderPole and go for it, but I'd like the understanding first.
Why does
this work? :)
Thanks.
On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 13:19 Walter Underwood
<[email protected]>
wrote:
You can get a quick look at band conditions at
http://bandconditions.com <
http://bandconditions.com/>
Using Buddistick on 40 m is a real challenge. I would not be
surprised if
that was an S-unit or more below a full-size dipole.
Try the simplest field antenna for the KX3, two wires connected
directly
to the rig. Get a BNC to double binding post adaptor. Get a wire 26
to 29
feet long, throw it in a tree and hook one end to the red post. Get
a 16
foot wire, lay it on the ground and connect it to the black post.
Let the
ATU tune it and see you can hear.
wunder
K6WRU
Walter Underwood
CM87wj
http://observer.wunderwood.org/ (my blog)
On Aug 11, 2017, at 9:54 AM, Tommy <[email protected]> wrote:
The band has been really crappy lately. Keep tuning around and
listening.
73!
Tom - KB2SMS
On 08/11/2017 12:33 PM, Mike Parkes wrote:
Okay I am reaching our to the Elecraft enthusiasts here for some
feedback
if anyone cares to chime in.
I am just getting back on the air after years away from the hobby,
so I
am
not that familiar with band conditions in general. It looks like
the
sunspot cycle is heading for the cellar (if it isn't already
there).
Recently bought a KX3 and a Buddistick vertical (like, 2 weeks
ago).
Love
the KX3 it is a great radio... however... so far my efforts to
hear
much of
anything, much less make a contact with someone, has been
frustrating to
say the least. I live in an apartment and am surrounded by power
lines
for
one thing. The background noise level on 40 is pretty bad varies
but is
s7-9 mostly. I took my setup to a nearby park and the bands were
definitely quieter. So the local manmade noise level is an issue
(and
one
reason I chose the KX3 was the hope that its rcvr and filtering
could
help
with that.)
Have yet to make a single contact, so I am just wondering if I
just
happened to choose a really lousy period of solar conditions for
HF? Or
is
the base loaded vertical a joke?
I would love to be able to find another ham even close by just to
try
and
get some sort of an HF QSO even if it is with someone down the
block.
...I can tune down to the AM broadcast band and was able to hear
some
local
AM stations. :)
Mike AB7RU
(On a side note the tuner in the KX3 is great!. That thing was
able to
get
a match for 80 meters on the Buddistick which was showing
something like
25:1 swr. The KX3 tuner clicked and rattled for a while and found
a
match
to <2:1. Not sure how much actual RF is going out, probably not
much...
but
I was amazed it could tune to that high an SWR.)
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--
73 (or 72 for the QRP folks),
Rich Hurd / WC3T
DMR ID: 3142737
Northampton County RACES
EPA-ARRL Public Information Officer for Scouting
Latitude: 40.761621 Longitude: -75.288988 (40°45.68' N 75°17.33' W)
Grid:
*FN20is*
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