Mac·Gy·ver Verb, informal (U.S.): To make or repair (an object) in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are at hand....
* * * Last weekend I had the good fortune to be on the Kern River, in the southern Sequoia range, with excellent hiking *and* RF conditions. I parked my car at the Hobo day-use area and proceed to hunt for a place called Miracle Hot Springs. On the web there are photos of the springs, but I never did find them. (Hints, anyone?) Rather than continue the search, I decided to scramble up a very steep hillside for a better view. And/or a promising operating perch. Thanks to a very wet winter, the soil was just slightly moist and covered in well-rooted grass and moss in several lurid shades of green. It was optimally packed for a near-vertical ascent. When I was a hundred or feet above the river gorge, I took in the view, ate lunch, then broke out the KX2 and the AX1 17/20 meter whip. I found both bands open for short skip. After I got tired of working 20-over-nine VE7s I decided to give the lower bands a listen. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring the longer lengths of wire usually required to get onto 40 meters (20-25 feet). But I did have two 13' radial wires of the type supplied with the AX1. I left one of them connected to the rig's chassis ground, then threw the other into a nearby scrub pine and connected it to the rig's BNC jack using a BNC-to-binding-post adapter. The KX2's ATU gave it the ol' college try, but the SWR on 40 m was still in the 8 to 10:1 range due to the very short electrical length. Here's where the "MacGyvering" part comes in. (Remember the TV show? Admittedly the stakes were not quite as high on this occasion. But still.) I reattached the loading coil portion of the AX1 to the KX2, without the whip. Then I stripped the tree-supported radial wire back a couple of inches, unscrewed the coil's aluminum cap a bit, and wrapped a turn of the radial around the cap. Retightening the cap made the assembly quite stable. I found that I could now get close to a 1:1 match on 30 meters with the 17 meter AX1 setting, and the same on 40 meters using the 20 meter setting. In effect, the AX1 became a very high-Q extension to the ATU's L-network. I had no trouble being heard on the low bands with this arrangement. Of course a pair of longer wires would have provided better results. But I'm sure MacGyver would make do with a guitar string if he'd forgotten his garrote. 73, Wayne N6KR ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
