I have a full size vertical built from 25G running against about 80 1/4 WL radials - #18 insulated wire sewn into the ground an inch or two below ground. There is a single ground rod next to the bas
I need to add a spark gap of some sort onto my full-size 160m insulated-base tower. Looking for ideas. Making the spark gap is simple. What has me asking for ideas is the weather element - we have
When it comes to elevated radials, the amount of guys who have strong opinions on the subject are many - and unfortunately the amount of objective data behind those strong opinions is generally not e
Great job Lee 73/jeff/ac0c alpha-charlie-zero-charlie www.ac0c.com Even if the copper center conductor expands, the way the cable connectors are made allows the copper to simply push in the connector
I don't know about the price end of it. But Jim's comment about the alignment is true. I fiddled around with some designs and then K8ZOA managed to talk me into back into the land of sanity. Jack c
Had the same issue as you Lloyd here - in a prior antenna matching net. On 160 it would start to drift after calling CQ a few times. I did not flip to vac caps. But instead ended up using lower va
I of course defer to Frank's expertise here. But after thinking about this for a couple of hours, I'm trying to wrap my head around this arc risk concept as well. It's interesting and I toss this c
Wow, that's amazing. I suppose the risk of micro arcing then specifically with insulated radials has got to be closer to zero - at least until the insulation breakdown was sufficient to facilitate th
I have a DLEX357OV front loading LG here. About 3 years old? It's quit as far as I know although my antennas are about 250' from the house, and I put 3 big clamp-on type 31 ferrites at the cable exi
N6LF Rudy's web site and associated QEX series has empirical data to answer all of these questions regarding the number and length of on ground radials. 73/jeff/ac0c alpha-charlie-zero-charlie www.ac
On N6LF web page you can find the QEX series on ground mounted radials. And there is a ton of discussion of this topic on the reflector as it seems to come up often (may be mixing it with the towert
Not sure about the other KS stations. But here in NW KS, if I don't spin the HiZ RX circle 8 around to point to SW, I just won't hear AZ unless the station calling is really strong or the prop is pe
Worked him this weekend from KS first night. 5:17Z. Only DX seen in my whopping 2 hours of activity. 73/jeff/ac0c alpha-charlie-zero-charlie www.ac0c.com But this time he came back on the third cal
The secret to using this sort of solution is to apply just enough of it to kill off the mixing products that are the result. The good news is that you get (generally speaking) a 3:1 payback - so 1 d
The casual antenna nut considering a parasitic vertical array will need to pay very close attention to the comment on having a VERY SERIOUS ground radial system on all elements. 73/jeff/ac0c alpha-ch
Grant, that higher Rr is the path I took as well. My 160m antenna is a bit longer than 1/4wl - trimmed in length so that the resistivity component of Z was 50 ohms. It's got Xl of course, so I use a
The RIB is an interesting concept. 73/jeff/ac0c alpha-charlie-zero-charlie www.ac0c.com Just looked at his AA7JV qrz page, where there's extensive description of their Oceania trip and Radio In A Box
Saw the interview. Fascinating. The guys have done a ton of work and that approach makes sense for these environmentally hyper-sensitive QTH. 73/jeff/ac0c alpha-charlie-zero-charlie www.ac0c.com Jo
There is another practical issue here. I would agree that elevated radials can work great. But in practice, MAINTENANCE of the elevated radials is a non-ending headache. Around here we have deer a
I think there are a couple of reasons I want to try this method. First is that it's a technically cool use of a VNA - which is my personal favorite gadget in general. I live in an area surrounded by