Cobra 139xlr, Robyn SB-520D, Radio Shack TRC-458, under the covers pretty much the same thing as the early President Washington. There are differences, of course, but they're all good choices.
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First base station
- Thread starter 918Oklahoma
- Start date
Cobra 139xlr, Robyn SB-520D, Radio Shack TRC-458, under the covers pretty much the same thing as the early President Washington. There are differences, of course, but they're all good choices.
918 I use an icom 746, 100 watts max, I turned the power down to about 40 watts today and was still able to get a good signal reading from hobie102. I am quite sure a 12 watt radio would have worked. Conditions were good! My dipole is a pieced together setup, got the so-239 connector from a broken watt meter, used a plastic box out of a tool case, some #12awg wire that I had laying around and 2 3/4" flex conduit connectors for the insulators on the ends. Some strong rope and two trees provided the needed area. You should be happy with the dr dipole setup.
918, How's it going buddy? I wasn't on the mountain for the qso with 222. here at the base in the ditch. I run a moxon on the base as well at about 23' high. I can attest to the effectiveness of 222's dipole. he was running about twice the power I was running but it had more to do with conditions than power. i can attest to that as I spent last spring working all of EU with the moxon and about 12-18 watts of power.
Don't be worried about putting a dipole together. They are the cheapest and easiest directional antenna to make no doubt and they really work. Don't get bogged down in the technicals. You can find dipole calculators on line. get yourself some decent coax like rg8x (unless the run is really long) a pl239, some wire and have at it. I have talked to stations in EU running one in their attic no problem. If the propagation sucks it won't happen anyways. Dif' antennas perform differently in relation to one another at differing heights. The yagi needs to be higher. My moxon performs fine at 1/4 wave high though more narrow banded than my 2 el short boom yagi. The short boom Yagi was very simple to put together and the front to back was savage at the expense of gain. Although I did make almost an 11,000 mile trip with it on 25-35 watts.
PM me if you'd like as I'd be glad to help. Nothing but time and have no life. I do things easy, quick and cheap and it works as you know. To start, get your lengths correct, use decent coax and make you solder connections good. That's all there is to get started. I'd be glad to help and there are tons of resources and ideas online whether you choose to string one up or mount it on something so it will easily turn, lets say if you want to work EU and west coast US. Then turn it to work S' America and Canada. If propagation is marginal, you can still work dx but the direction the antenna is pointed in will be more critical focusing you transmission towards your intended target. That's when you're grateful to have a directional antenna. Low power and marginal propagation is where this type of antenna puts a smile on your face. A dipole will work 2 directions simultaneously as you probably already know. Best 73,
Don't be worried about putting a dipole together. They are the cheapest and easiest directional antenna to make no doubt and they really work. Don't get bogged down in the technicals. You can find dipole calculators on line. get yourself some decent coax like rg8x (unless the run is really long) a pl239, some wire and have at it. I have talked to stations in EU running one in their attic no problem. If the propagation sucks it won't happen anyways. Dif' antennas perform differently in relation to one another at differing heights. The yagi needs to be higher. My moxon performs fine at 1/4 wave high though more narrow banded than my 2 el short boom yagi. The short boom Yagi was very simple to put together and the front to back was savage at the expense of gain. Although I did make almost an 11,000 mile trip with it on 25-35 watts.
PM me if you'd like as I'd be glad to help. Nothing but time and have no life. I do things easy, quick and cheap and it works as you know. To start, get your lengths correct, use decent coax and make you solder connections good. That's all there is to get started. I'd be glad to help and there are tons of resources and ideas online whether you choose to string one up or mount it on something so it will easily turn, lets say if you want to work EU and west coast US. Then turn it to work S' America and Canada. If propagation is marginal, you can still work dx but the direction the antenna is pointed in will be more critical focusing you transmission towards your intended target. That's when you're grateful to have a directional antenna. Low power and marginal propagation is where this type of antenna puts a smile on your face. A dipole will work 2 directions simultaneously as you probably already know. Best 73,
918, I made a dipole used a pvc fitting actually 2 put a I-bolt on top and one on each side, drilled a hole big enough in the bottom to mount the so-239. Then i soldered one wire to the center of the s0-239 then to one I-bolt. The other I-bolt ran a wire and grounded it to one of the bolts for the s0-239, i used crimp connecters at each end to both I-bolts.
Then you need two wires connected to the two side i-bolts. Im not sure but i think the wires need to be 108" but cut them long and fold them over to tune. longer or shorter depending on the frequency you want to run. I was able to tune channel 20 at 1.1, it just took a while. i'll see if i have a picture of the middle where the s0-239 is.
Then you need two wires connected to the two side i-bolts. Im not sure but i think the wires need to be 108" but cut them long and fold them over to tune. longer or shorter depending on the frequency you want to run. I was able to tune channel 20 at 1.1, it just took a while. i'll see if i have a picture of the middle where the s0-239 is.
Which way you have it pointed 918, I will see if I can catch you. What freq. do you hang on? I am on 38lsb mostly, but can go elsewhere as well. Hope you have fun. The dx has been good here around central FL. Anyway, looks good. Same dipole I helped put up yesterday for a friend. The unadilla. Dr dipole. Good deal. You may have to adjust the length a bit, but If the swr is 1.3 or under, leave it be and enjoy!!
Good luck 918 give me a call 38lsb usually OR1183 .It looks good can't wait to hear Dr Dipole always thought about getting one til Hobie got me started on making a Yagi !lol
My swr was flat across the band i was surprised, i was expecting to have to adjust it. Dr. DIPOLE knows what he is doing! Ive got it running East/Southeast and West-Northwest. I didnt have much time to play with it because i had to go to work. Monitored 38lsb (thats what im usually on) for about 20 min. I could hear a lot of new england stations, some oregon and cali stations, Manitoba... the band was really crowded and lots of pileups. Tried to listen for a bit after dark on my lunch break but i can only hear people faintly talking and a lot of wooshing sounds.
I think im going to ne happy with the dipole, ill know more tomorrow when i have all day to call CQ.
I have one of those Dr.Dipole antennas that I string up from time to time. I would only have it up about 10 feet at most, but even at that height with a Magnum s45HP I could make some solid contacts from Texas to the northeast and southeast with ease. I even made some good contacts with a barefoot Uniden 980. I hope to get my dipole up to about 20 ft. and see how it will do.
Thats very cool, do you like your 980? I have been considering one.
sounds like your dipole is working well even at 10ft. From my understanding when mounted horizontally, a 1/2 wave dipole works best mounted at least 18ft high, so youd be golden at 20ft. You would probably see an increase in contacts and youd pull out those faint stations a little easier too. Dipoles are very cool antennas, im glad i went this route.
Thanks buddy, ill be calling out for you. Keep an ear out for 918 Oklahoma, thats my DX callsign.
it sure is addicting, i cant stop thinking about radios.
I also had another question, is there any way i can hook 2 radios up to the same antenna or no? Id like to run a cobra 29 at the same time so i can monitor AM while i am working ssb stations on my galaxy.
sounds like your dipole is working well even at 10ft. From my understanding when mounted horizontally, a 1/2 wave dipole works best mounted at least 18ft high, so youd be golden at 20ft. You would probably see an increase in contacts and youd pull out those faint stations a little easier too. Dipoles are very cool antennas, im glad i went this route.
Thanks buddy, ill be calling out for you. Keep an ear out for 918 Oklahoma, thats my DX callsign.
it sure is addicting, i cant stop thinking about radios.
I also had another question, is there any way i can hook 2 radios up to the same antenna or no? Id like to run a cobra 29 at the same time so i can monitor AM while i am working ssb stations on my galaxy.
I realize you have already ordered a dipole, however, for future reference, or for someone reading the thread, here is a cheap dipole.
1. Use oOne 9' extension cord. $2 - $3
2. Cut off the female block end.
3. Separate the two conductors back to the male plug.
4. Attach center coax conductor to one male plug prong.
5. Attach coax braid to other male plug prong.
6. Fold back ends of both wires so each is 8' 6" long.
7. Hang this in the air horizontally.
8. Hook opposite end of coax to the radio and start talking.
What about SWR and all that? I've done this so many times that unless the dipole is really close to something conductive or the wires are shorted or broken the SWR will be so close to just right that the difference in performance in indistinguishable.
1. Use oOne 9' extension cord. $2 - $3
2. Cut off the female block end.
3. Separate the two conductors back to the male plug.
4. Attach center coax conductor to one male plug prong.
5. Attach coax braid to other male plug prong.
6. Fold back ends of both wires so each is 8' 6" long.
7. Hang this in the air horizontally.
8. Hook opposite end of coax to the radio and start talking.
What about SWR and all that? I've done this so many times that unless the dipole is really close to something conductive or the wires are shorted or broken the SWR will be so close to just right that the difference in performance in indistinguishable.
Before i purchased my a99 I was using an 11 meter dipole I bought of an eBay seller n9 something or another. I think it cost about $38. I hung it 20' off the ground in my back yard. It worked great for locaal and skip. It was an inverted V as per all the wwdx members that responded to my questions about how to hang a dipole. The eBay seller I bought it from builds dipole for every band from 160-10. I've never had or even seen a dipole before my purchase but I must say this dipole seems to be of a very high quality. I was also informed to purchase LMR TIMES 400. I purchased 145'. Excellent cable.Expensive but worth it. The only thing I would've done different was purchesing the LMR TIMES 400 ultra flex as the regular 400 is very stiff. I also purchased the LMR TIMES 400 4ft jumpers but thay proved to stiff and were sticking straight out of the back of my station so I purchased six 4ft lmr 240 ultra flex and it's flexibility was excellent.
The rg8 mini im using seems to be working fine for now. Was about 50 cents per foot, does the job.
I had a question about hooking the radio up to my power supply. Do i need to get some stamped end connectors for the ends of my power cord? Or is that just optional? Right now o just have about an inch of the shielding cut back and i shaped the exposed copper like a hook and tightened down the plasic screw knobs on that. Seems to work, but what do the elmers recommend?
I had a question about hooking the radio up to my power supply. Do i need to get some stamped end connectors for the ends of my power cord? Or is that just optional? Right now o just have about an inch of the shielding cut back and i shaped the exposed copper like a hook and tightened down the plasic screw knobs on that. Seems to work, but what do the elmers recommend?