Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
All this is is basically a bungee cord inside of a pvc tube prettied up with some end caps and foam balls. Hook up newton scale to the bungee and mark them at whatever tension you want “marked”.
In my experience, throwing a second line with pulley on it first and then running the antenna support line through the pulley is equally good – it allows the tree and the anchored pulley to sway and the pulley rolls along the support line without adding a bunch of tension; the support line stays still and the tree/pulley moves on it. I used stainless steel cable on the pulley line and 3/8 Dacron for the support line and tied them off to different anchors so they don’t move in unison (otherwise it will create tension). I have my 80M loop up with 3 of 4 corners (all but the fed corner) like this and haven’t even needed to even replace a rope in 4 years in NH at 50ft.
You would be surprised the accuracy you can get with a fishing pole, bow and arrow, or slingshot. Usually takes a few (ok maybe more than a few) tries but most times it can be done unless you are trying to break laws of physics and do something that really isn’t possible.
73
Jon
Paul-
If you want to excel at RF field maintenance, you need to focus on three things: getting a firm grasp on basic RF principles/theory, getting as much practical experience as you can, and learning from mentors who have been down that road.
My background is Electrical Engineering (MSEE) but I have learned a lot doing RF work both professionally and “for play” with Ham Radio projects over many years. Almost all of the practical knowledge came from Ham Radio. Hands-on is how you get a natural feel for how things work. It’s like that in most things. You can have to throw yourself into it – try to seek opportunities where you can work alongside another ham who’s working on the kinds of things you want to work on.
There are opportunities out there if this is what you want to do professionally.
73,
Dave KM3TI kno2w that this is about RF, but the comment about shutting down power from the grid raises another issue. When this was hot 5/6 years ago, I was talking to the fire chief in Merrimack. He was telling me that, at that time, they could not send anyone into a house to respond until the utility came out and cut off the power to the street. He also said there were issues with access to the roof and many towns were altering their building codes to require a margin around the perimeter of the roof so that personnel could get on the roof to deal with the situation. I’ve been out of that loop for 4 years, so I have no idea if the codes/utility procedures have changed. Just something else to be aware of. Another issue was the local property tax deduction. The law permitted towns and cities to grant exemptions, but not required. The vendors did not train their sales forces on the distinction. If the circumstances have changes, just ignore this.
Tom Mahon
AB1NSCheck your Connectors settings on screen 2/4 DATA OFF MOD set to MIC and DATA MOD screen 3/4 set to USB.
Tom Mahon
AB1NSIt’s a NEC requirement that all PV systems have rapid shutdown logic. If the utility power goes down, they don’t want PV panels back feeding the grid.
Jay,
Another option to consider for solar is self-installation. I pulled the permits and set everything up on my roof with the help of this organization: https://www.harei.org
They are a local group of enthusiasts who enjoy working with solar and have a lot of experience with the ‘tricks of the trade’. Bonus points are that their free labor drastically helped improved my ROI.
My hardware is Panasonic PV panels w/ Enphase micros. I purchased them from: https://www.altestore.com which is located just South of us in Boxborough, MA. My configuration is similar to Burns (located on the opposite side of the house from my shack location), but from all accounts, there is no RFI from the PV panels/inverters.
I hope that this helps.
Ryan
Hello Fred,
Thank you for the insight, I can see what are you talking about with the capabilities of the two analyzers I’m interesting in. I think it might serve me well to go with the Rig Expert as I build out my initial setup. I want to take advantage of the right tools out there in order to minimize the troubleshooting I will definitely be doing along the way as I am far from an expert yet.
The following link may provide some helpful insight into the G5RV antenna operation: https://www.hamuniverse.com/g5rv.html
The parallel transmission line used is an integral part of the matching process of the radiating antenna wire and coax system used to connect it to your radio. The goal of the parallel transmission line is to transform the actual impedance at the radiating antenna wire down to something that can be matched by an antenna tuner. A tuner is needed on all bands except 20 meters (but will help there also).
This line should not be coiled up or left laying on the ground when measurements are being made with your analyzer. The analyzer will provide good insight of how the antenna will respond on each of the other bands, but the best measurement point will be with the antenna fully erected and then measured at the point where it actually enters your radio.
Hope this helps.
Mike – k1wvo
Hi Paul,
I’m an Eagle Scout from Heart of New England Council. One of the biggest things you can do is operate during JOTA (the international Jamboree on the Air) in October. There’s a net on the *JOTA-365* conference on EchoLink, as well as local nets. More information about the BSA’s participation in JOTA is here: https://k2bsa.net/jota/
K2BSA is a great resource as it’s the BSA’s radio club. They have monthly radio scouting nets and support at the National and World Scout Jamborees at the Summit.
I’m not sure if you saw the article in the latest QST but there was a troop in Texas(?) that got their Scouts involved with ARES after a hurricane.
Radio merit badge is a relatively easy badge to teach, especially with the support of a local club. When my troop earned it we had elmers from NVARC come out to help.
If you’ve got questions I’m more than happy to answer!
73 and yours in Scouting,
Owen KC1KZT