Made my first contacts on 17 and 12 meters today with an Antron. Talked to Santiago chile and Ecuador. What are the characteristics of these two bands?
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The Antron99 is a 1/2 over 1/4 wave antenna - for some reason it finds harmonics of 11 on 15 and 17 if you get it up high enough and away from everything else.
17 meters sometimes goes long, is a lot like 20, but will still be open sometimes when 10 or 15 is not.
20 is mostly nets and foreigners - the Italians likes to hang out and operate around 14.250 Mhz USB.
The people that operates on 17 meters is usually the ones looking to make short QSO's or collect call signs for awards.. It's not used for contests - but people does what they want and you can't stop them...
15 meters is a more General Band, has been around a lot longer then the WARC bands. 15 meters is a good General all around band.
Mostly it is used for DX = out of country, or in country but not local communications.
12 Meter is mostly those that were CB'rs that discovers that they can find a little room on 12 when 10 is busy.. There is no contests on 12....
There just isn't enough bandwidth to really do anything with 12 - there is no difference between 12 and 10...
The Solorcon / Antron 99 is a CB radio antenna, although I remind my friends that a antenna is a antenna... What ever it takes to get on the air.
I would suggest that you find yourself a good off-center fed dipole antenna that will operate 10 - 80 meters without a tuner such as the HY Power Antenna company.
Don't get rid of your Antron - because a off-center fed dipole will not work on 15 or 30 meters - because they are not a harmonic of anything else...