I used porcelain insulators with a lag screw on one end and screwed them into the opposing sides of the 4x4 support posts. I threaded the wd1a through the large hole in the insulators, and adjusted t
Trevor, Its unclear to me what youre looking for. One transistor and a 24V power supply can activate a vacuum relay, but are you trying to key up an amplifier with the relay, ground a receive antenna
I'm always hesitant to challenge anything Jim VE7RF says about amps, because he's almost always right, but here I have to respectfully disagree with a couple (not all!) of his points. I, too, call p
Vic, I've had nothing but bad luck in trying to support long horizontal lengths of ladder line. In my case, I have two 720 ft bidirectional beverages, which I initially made of heavy duty commercial
Roger, You had a solid 569 signal into New Mexico last night, despite frequent static crashes. Wonder what your power and antenna(s) were? Here, I was running 1500W into a 26m vertical (w/top capacit
I sold my GPS time base and replaced itbwith a $75 surplus rubidium standard I bought on eBay. They're smaller than a paperback book. I had to add a power supply and enclosure, but it works great, ou
On this general topic, I'm erecting a 68 ft aluminum self-supporting pole (DX Engineering) that is four inches OD at the bottom, tapering to about 1/2 inch at the top. It is designed as a full size 1
Jeff, I also use THHN 14Awg stranded wire laying flat on the ground. I use brown insulation to match the desert floor, and one or two lawn staples per radial (each is 120 ft long). I'm not certain, b
Don raises interesting points. A couple of minor addenda. First, keep in mind that "skin depth," iwhich is the tendency of an AC current to flow near a conductor surface, is frequency dependent. The
Hi Doug, I've got exactly the same setup. I use two coils, a 2uH shunt coil, one side of which is grounded, and a 22uH loading coil that connects to the top of the shunt coil at the bottom of the ant
Hi All, I have a 70ft 80m self-supporting vertical, which I've baseloaded to bring it down to 160m. The antenna is about 800 ft. from my shack, fed with buried hardline. The vertical has sixty 120 ft
Finally, after years of frustration with several types of PL259 connectors, I've settled on the new crimp/solder type from DX Engineering. They're strong, reliable, and easy to install in minutes whi
About twenty-five years ago I started replacing many of my PL259 connectors with N-connectors. I did this mostly because my VHF/UHF buddies convinced me that the impedance bump of an N-connector was
Interesting discussion, and I appreciate the many viewpoints. One consideration, when weighing N-connectors vs PL259s, is what happens to the cable after the connector is attached. Nobody disputes th
Very interesting, Jim. I wasn't familiar with RG-400, but I've used RG-142B for years. I compared the specs and found they're virtually identical, the only significant difference being that RG-400 ha
Guy, I agree in principle that coax with a stranded center conductor will be more flexible than coax with a solid conductor, although in applications where there is mechanical stress on the coax, coa
On this general subject, Im using bi-diectional beverages 720 ft long, suspended 7 ft above sandy desert ground. The F/B ratio is poor (not important for New Mexico) but Im wondering if the antennas
Ive had good luck using fast zener diodes in series with ordinary small silicon diodes (eg 1n914). The zener keeps the signal diode out of the antenna circuit until the zener breakdown voltage, say 1
Thanks for the suggestion, Dave. Im using DXE hardware and relay boxes for switching, and twin lengths of WD-1A mil surplus telephone cable for the wires. The lengths are spaced roughly 6 inches apar