I thought I'd up dated this, guess not.
First, if done correctly, tantrums do seem to affect electronic things. Make the right threats, demonstrate your ire with whatever it is, get it's attention, you know? Doesn't work all the time, but you might be surprised at how often it does.
The whine/snivel/cry thingy did work with the club's tech/supply officer. He let me have about 20 feet of RG-8X to shut me up (I also threw in a couple of nice '259's). Got it put in, works just dandy. Instead of cutting off the 'extra' cable I wound it into a choke on the antenna's mount. Seemed like a good place to store it, and a choke very seldom hurts anything. Also rounded up all the ferrite thingys I could find around the house. Put them on the control and sensor cables. The truck only leans a little bit, no big deal.
I also found the problem with that 'RatShack' cable. It would be very generous if you called the shielding 50%. I've seen new born baby hair thicker than that ... stuff. I think it's safe to say that if that braid sees a sharp object it will break. It did, and after cleaning it up, it even works now. I haven't thrown it away, I may have a 'friend' who needs some RG-58 -real- bad, who knows.
This antenna comes with two 'whips', one about 6 feet long, the other about 18" long. The longer one is for everything except 6 meters, which is what the shorty is for. I've been playing with it to see just how much 'reach' both whips have, and that's been interesting. Using the short whip the antenna will cover something like 70 Mhz at full retraction, to about 24 Mhz at full extension. 6 meters seems to work well with the shorty whip. 10 and 11 meters works. You can definitely tell a difference between the short whip and the long one though! I was surprised at the difference. The long whip will get you to the bottom end of 80 meters, but forget going any lower than that. I plan to see how much of an 'extension' is required for 160 meters, just haven't gotten around to it yet. With the amount of inductance in that coil, I don't have any doubts about it resonating on 160, but that certainly doesn't mean is will work worth a hoot.
So that catches things up fairly well. I'm happy with it. The only antenna I can compare it to isn't another screw driver, but I can say that it's very close to a 'BugCatcher' in performance so far. The 'BugCatcher' still has an edge, but then it's a longer antenna, I would expect it to. The only thing I would warn someone about is that it's 'touchy', requires attention to get tuned close. But, that's not really all that bad. It is big, it is heavy, so take that into consideration if you're thinking of getting one. Don't think small mounts, it won't work. If that mount is strong, the antenna will not require any guying at all, as the 'BugCatcher' did.
I did make a deal with the builder! He said he'd send me one can of beer for every antenna sold that uses me as a reference (good deal, huh?). So all of you rush right out and buy one or two!
- 'Doc
Hey! If you buy three, I'll send you a beer! Now is that a deal or not?
First, if done correctly, tantrums do seem to affect electronic things. Make the right threats, demonstrate your ire with whatever it is, get it's attention, you know? Doesn't work all the time, but you might be surprised at how often it does.
The whine/snivel/cry thingy did work with the club's tech/supply officer. He let me have about 20 feet of RG-8X to shut me up (I also threw in a couple of nice '259's). Got it put in, works just dandy. Instead of cutting off the 'extra' cable I wound it into a choke on the antenna's mount. Seemed like a good place to store it, and a choke very seldom hurts anything. Also rounded up all the ferrite thingys I could find around the house. Put them on the control and sensor cables. The truck only leans a little bit, no big deal.
I also found the problem with that 'RatShack' cable. It would be very generous if you called the shielding 50%. I've seen new born baby hair thicker than that ... stuff. I think it's safe to say that if that braid sees a sharp object it will break. It did, and after cleaning it up, it even works now. I haven't thrown it away, I may have a 'friend' who needs some RG-58 -real- bad, who knows.
This antenna comes with two 'whips', one about 6 feet long, the other about 18" long. The longer one is for everything except 6 meters, which is what the shorty is for. I've been playing with it to see just how much 'reach' both whips have, and that's been interesting. Using the short whip the antenna will cover something like 70 Mhz at full retraction, to about 24 Mhz at full extension. 6 meters seems to work well with the shorty whip. 10 and 11 meters works. You can definitely tell a difference between the short whip and the long one though! I was surprised at the difference. The long whip will get you to the bottom end of 80 meters, but forget going any lower than that. I plan to see how much of an 'extension' is required for 160 meters, just haven't gotten around to it yet. With the amount of inductance in that coil, I don't have any doubts about it resonating on 160, but that certainly doesn't mean is will work worth a hoot.
So that catches things up fairly well. I'm happy with it. The only antenna I can compare it to isn't another screw driver, but I can say that it's very close to a 'BugCatcher' in performance so far. The 'BugCatcher' still has an edge, but then it's a longer antenna, I would expect it to. The only thing I would warn someone about is that it's 'touchy', requires attention to get tuned close. But, that's not really all that bad. It is big, it is heavy, so take that into consideration if you're thinking of getting one. Don't think small mounts, it won't work. If that mount is strong, the antenna will not require any guying at all, as the 'BugCatcher' did.
I did make a deal with the builder! He said he'd send me one can of beer for every antenna sold that uses me as a reference (good deal, huh?). So all of you rush right out and buy one or two!
- 'Doc
Hey! If you buy three, I'll send you a beer! Now is that a deal or not?
Just get it at least a foot above the coil, if you can.