11 meter is very quiet?

[DelR]

Here ya go ! Hopefully you can see it OK in the pic as the wire is pretty thin. It is at about 35 feet AGL strung between two trees which are out of sight to the sides.
You may have to zoom into the photo to see it clearly. It is fed with Belden 9913 RG8 cable. That is a 4:1 balun at the feedpoint. That's what I had available. You can adjust the impedence of a delta loop from about 100 to 400 ohms by changing the length of the sides relative to the horizontal top. I fiddled with the lengths until I got 200 ohms. It has a less than 1.5:1 match from 27 to 28 MHz.

As a bonus you can also see the roof of my shop, my A-99 in the background and a wee glimpse of a VHF marine antenna on the right side of the shop roof. And one of our world renowned giant fir trees too ! The top of that tree would be a great spot for a vertical if not for the hurricane force winds that blow up there in the winter.........an antenna in that tree wouldn't last long!View attachment 69259

So, would that be directional, maybe two ways, or omni, or how does it act?

 

[BC Coyote]

So, would that be directional, maybe two ways, or omni, or how does it act?

In theory it should be bidirectional & horizontally polarized.
In practice it is indeed horizontal in polarization, but surprisingly it doesn't seem to be highly directional. A surprising outcome as I spent a large amount of time setting it up to favor optimal directions from here !
It definitely performs somewhat better in the expected directions, but I talk to Australia on it sometimes and that's right off the side. And those stations are still stronger than on my A-99
I suspect if I could get it up at more like 50 or 60 feet it might act a lot more directionally.

 

[DelR]

Sounds nice. I was just looking into it and seem some 2 and 3 element beam style then said "duhh".

In theory it should be bidirectional & horizontally polarized.
In practice it is indeed horizontal in polarization, but surprisingly it doesn't seem to be highly directional. A surprising outcome as I spent a large amount of time setting it up to favor optimal directions from here !
It definitely performs somewhat better in the expected directions, but I talk to Australia on it sometimes and that's right off the side. And those stations are still stronger than on my A-99
I suspect if I could get it up at more like 50 or 60 feet it might act a lot more directionally.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

CK-
Why do you always diss CBers. ?? I got my ticket last August, and hooked up my TS430 and gave 10 meters a shot. A few contacts were fine, but 8 out of 10 had some sarcastic remarks about Colombia and drugs . Or asked me if I came down here to do drugs. Or. . .made some low-class comment about my Latino wife.
THIS IS REAL CRAP !! I don't get any of this from CBers on 11 meters.

- J.J. 399

I don't diss CBers in general but listen to a lot of the crap on the band and you can see why someone would. FWIW I started on 11m, mostly DXing, always on SSB and pretty much on the Freeband. It was great.......waaaaay back then.I am going by my own experience, which is all anyone can do, when it comes to ex-CBers moving onto the ham bands. Back when licensing was changed so that all you had to do was memorize a few answers to some questions, the local 2m band became almost useless for quite some time as did 10m. Several of them basically took over a local repeater and continued to act like idiots on the air often tuning down to the CB band to harass the guys that had not gotten their tickets. I used to enjoy 10m FM DXing until they showed up with their class C splatter boxes on SSB and tore up the band. Some of them had power microphones wired up to their 2m FM radios and no matter how many times they were asked to back off the audio because they were overdeviatiting so bad they would be in and out of the repeater passband, they basically told you to go pound sand. THAT has been MY experiance although your's may be different. Admittedly things have gotten better the last few years and a few of them have disappeared.

 

[DelR]

So, would that be directional, maybe two ways, or omni, or how does it act?

 

[unit_399]

Here ya go ! Hopefully you can see it OK in the pic as the wire is pretty thin. It is at about 35 feet AGL strung between two trees which are out of sight to the sides.
You may have to zoom into the photo to see it clearly. It is fed with Belden 9913 RG8 cable. That is a 4:1 balun at the feedpoint. That's what I had available. You can adjust the impedence of a delta loop from about 100 to 400 ohms by changing the length of the sides relative to the horizontal top. I fiddled with the lengths until I got 200 ohms. It has a less than 1.5:1 match from 27 to 28 MHz.

As a bonus you can also see the roof of my shop, my A-99 in the background and a wee glimpse of a VHF marine antenna on the right side of the shop roof. And one of our world renowned giant fir trees too ! The top of that tree would be a great spot for a vertical if not for the hurricane force winds that blow up there in the winter.........an antenna in that tree wouldn't last long!View attachment 69259

Very nice setup. You're fortunate that you have some tall trees to work with.

- J.J. 399

 

[AmericanEagle575]

Just decided to fire up the Ranger on my day off today,I'm on 38 and 40 LSB at the moment,will be on and off through out the afternoon,hope everyone is doing well today and God Bless you all.............

73's

 

[guitar_199]

Watching Luz work the salesman is almost as much fun as talking DX.

- J.J. 399

I have one of those!!!! We went to buy a new van one time. Myself, wife, two boys. He wouldn't hit the mark she wanted... I got up and left the table and went out to our car.

About a half hour later, one of our boys came out to the car grinning. I asked how it was going. He said "mom's JUST ABOUT got him". Ten minutes later Carolyn came out to tell me to come on back in for signing.

She said that he got a LOT more accommodating after I walked out. He was asking her if I was okay... and if she thought I would come back. HE THOUGHT I took the "dealing and buying power"with ME to the car. OH NO!!!! I left him with a shark!!!!! She got EXACTLY the deal she wanted.

 

[guitar_199]

Here ya go ! Hopefully you can see it OK in the pic as the wire is pretty thin. It is at about 35 feet AGL strung between two trees which are out of sight to the sides.
You may have to zoom into the photo to see it clearly. It is fed with Belden 9913 RG8 cable. That is a 4:1 balun at the feedpoint. That's what I had available. You can adjust the impedence of a delta loop from about 100 to 400 ohms by changing the length of the sides relative to the horizontal top. I fiddled with the lengths until I got 200 ohms. It has a less than 1.5:1 match from 27 to 28 MHz.

As a bonus you can also see the roof of my shop, my A-99 in the background and a wee glimpse of a VHF marine antenna on the right side of the shop roof. And one of our world renowned giant fir trees too ! The top of that tree would be a great spot for a vertical if not for the hurricane force winds that blow up there in the winter.........an antenna in that tree wouldn't last long!View attachment 69259

An "antenna guy" after my own heart! How do you do with that????

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Just decided to fire up the Ranger on my day off today,I'm on 38 and 40 LSB at the moment,will be on and off through out the afternoon,hope everyone is doing well today and God Bless you all.............

73's

I am stuck at work reading about you guys DXing. My mind wanders thinking about what radio I am going to run when I get home. Which way should I point the antenna? What amplifier should I put in line? I also have a new to me Sinader to check out.

I used to do a lot of day dreaming in school as a kid......

 

[Eldorado828]

Am 19 is gettin it since I hit the highway this morning. Right now is the time of year to where the suns position brings in that all too familiar pixie man rambling.....

But I'm hearing it from all over the good o'l US of A!

Gentleman, fire up your stations and get on with your DX'n

 

[DelR]

In theory it should be bidirectional & horizontally polarized.
In practice it is indeed horizontal in polarization, but surprisingly it doesn't seem to be highly directional. A surprising outcome as I spent a large amount of time setting it up to favor optimal directions from here !
It definitely performs somewhat better in the expected directions, but I talk to Australia on it sometimes and that's right off the side. And those stations are still stronger than on my A-99
I suspect if I could get it up at more like 50 or 60 feet it might act a lot more directionally.

I was researching that antenna and the question I asked about it and felt kinna silly, seeing, I am saving to buy a Maco VQ3, which is a beam form of that antenna.

 

[codeman]

Am 19 is gettin it since I hit the highway this morning. Right now is the time of year to where the suns position brings in that all too familiar pixie man rambling.....

But I'm hearing it from all over the good o'l US of A!

Gentleman, fire up your stations and get on with your DX'n

I made a couple of contacts out west this morning on sideband and checked 19 AM and heard that insufferable guy. DX dropped out about an hour later.
This evening I am hearing Australia and some east coast USA.

 

[AmericanEagle575]

Just fired up the Ranger for a few minutes before I leave to have lunch with my kid's,38 LSB is pretty active at the moment but 16 LSB is really quiet,gave a shout out a couple times,but no dice.....I'll hopefully be back on the air after 2pm, have a great Sunday ahead and God Bless!!


73's

 

[unit_399]

Going down to the shack now(11AM). Gonna monitor Channel 37 LSB. Working on installing SDR on my 139XLR. Hopefully get it up and running today. Call for me with your WDX callsign. I'll be listening.

J.J. 399