New old ham radio, need advice/opinions

[Road Squawker]

Gee,... I just have to run out and get one of those "special" baluns before they are all gone. after all, I just can't buy the toroid, it MUST be some super secret material

you know, the one that works from 1 to 440 MHz, and has zero insertion loss,....A perfect BALUN terminated in a purely resistive load would reflect nothing and have zero insertion loss.

In the real world perfect does not happen. Even a wire has resistance, inductance and capacitance.....

 

[Old_Crow]

I agree, a good antenna system is very important. You can have a great radio but if the signal can not get out you become a mud-duck. It does not have to cost much but get some wire out there and up a high as you can. If you have a friend with a good antenna analyzer that would help out if your looking for a specific frequency. 10 meter band is a good start. Experiment, experiment, experiment, thats the fun part of this hobby

 

[n8fgb]

WHAT? You don't know Daiwa? Very good meters and excellent antenna switches. The CN-801 series are very good meters. I have the CN-801HP and the CN-801HP3. Both cover 1.8-200 MHz and the HP model is good to 2000 watts and the HP3 is good to 3000 watts. True peak reading too. BTW they are made in Japan and not China.

I have had Daiwa in the past, great product. But compare this on to this.
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-891
That is why a I said it looks Chinese.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I have had Daiwa in the past, great product. But compare this on to this.
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-891
That is why a I said it looks Chinese.

The funny thing is that if you look at the MFJ meter it says Made in Taiwan on the back. So much for Starkville, Mississippi. LOL

 

[2RT307]

I'm amazed at how long people take to tune up, but can't imagine anyone taking 15 minutes to do it. Maybe you are hearing intentional QRM. When I constructed my two antennas, I borrowed a club member's MFJ analyzer, and charted where the antennas worked best. Then I charted the tuning points on my tuner, and keep it in a little book that came with my tuner. I keep the amplifier's recommended settings close to my operating position. When I change bands, I take a look at my antenna chart, and set my tuner to where it "should" be. I make sure I'm on a frequency that nobody is using, and fine tune the antenna tuner while running about 10-20 watts. Then I set my amp to the recommended band settings, switch to dummy load, and tune my amplifier (off the air). Back on the air at full power, I usually only need a tiny tweak on the tuner settings to get everything right.

73,
Brett

 

[w9cll]

I use an LDG, it remembers the freq and tunes within 2 sec. I tune the rig unto a dummy load then switch to the antenna and hit the tune button, whole process less then 10 sec.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I can tune manual tuner in about 10-15 seconds total key down time which is broken up into two or three short transmissions to flip switches on the meter. Oh wait......I now have the cross needle type meters so that gets ruled out. Make that about 10 seconds total key down time even with the manual tuner. Now if I throw up a different antenna and try it for the first time it takes longer but with a known antenna the times are about right.

 

[Sonar]

What is with you and your pissing on everybody that does not agree with you? Really. We want to know. If you had any REAL knowledge of some of those all-band-no-tuner antennas you would realize that SWR is not everything when it comes to performance and making contacts has nothing to do with an antennas efficiency.My 80m mobile antenna made lots of contacts but was about 2% efficient if I was lucky.



What about a GOOD antenna that works all bands WITH an antenna tuner? You left that one out. You must have stock in a wire antenna building company.



Since wire is super dirt cheap and any REAL amateur should be able to scrounge some up for free by repurposing something, the price works out to the price of a decent tuner and a couple bucks. Pretty much any tuner will work as long as it has a built-in balun or you add an external balun. You could even save money by LEARNING how and building your own balun. Isn't that what amateur radio is all about? Learning and experimenting? Besides all that an antenna tuner can be used with several antennas over it's lifetime and even several at the same time thru a switch thus spreading out the cost. Hell a REAL amateur would build his own tuner. I figure these parts should make a good legal limit tuner for me.

Well if you are stupid enough to listen to an idiot tuning up for 15 minutes then that explains a lot right there.

My bad. I guess I should have read the posts a Little Closer. I thought it was me that was getting on people's nerves. 73.

 

[Road Squawker]

... look at the MFJ meter it says Made in Taiwan on the back. So much for Starkville, Mississippi. LOL

I have been to the Starkville site many times,... Martin does put on a good BBQ

... and Yes, ....... some of the MFJ stuff is the exact same item that other distributors sell under a different sticker.

take a close look at their power supplies.