Tom Arnold K6AET's Musings

So, I bought the book "Low Profile Amateur Radio". One thing I learned from it is Any Antenna Is Better Then No Antenna. So, I went to HRO and bought a RadioWavz brand dipole. 40/20 with Balun. I was going to just staple it to the fence but decided while I was out there that I could hang it from the edge of the roof. So, its slightly better then totall suboptimal, I mean, its not sitting on the ground. About 10ft high sloping to 5' at the fence.

Well, it tunes up with my MFJ antenna tuner, and it seems to work.

Now I just need to get over my fear of the PTT button.

Friend of mine is selling me ( very reasonably ) an SGC QMS-37 mobile HF antenna setup, which is the SG-237 Smartuner in a really fancy suction cupped thing. This weekend I fully intend to give it a spin with a ground rod, as many radials as I can run in my limited (concrete) yard, and as much wire as I can make vertical. If it works at all, I'll drop the money on a fiberglass flagpole and get the recommendly 28+ feet of wire in the air and *finally* have an HF rig at home on the air. Very exciting for me...

On the mobile front, I am still doing battle with SWR. I've done some more grounding, but I think I have a cable issue due to a rather severe right angle bend the coax has to make. I bought a right-angle connection from HRO, but its standard import *insert profanity here* and broke on the drive home. I've ordered an actual expensive amphenol right-angle and will do some work this weekend and see if I can make things happier. I have to say, the coax that High Sierra uses in their cable assembly seems pretty cheap. The braid is maybe 80% coverage which I'm not a fan of. I grew up mostly using Ancor marine coax which is 95%+ coverage. Maybe High Sierra just had a bad batch?