Permabanned
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2003
- Posts
- 10,695
- Location
- Shropshire
If you are not a spy or anything secretive post an aerial shot of the garden from Google Maps and perhaps some ground level shots, I am sure some of us can perhaps put forward some ideas. A dipole or vertical for 10 metres is small, but the band is far from always open. If you can manage a dipole about 35 feet in total length and can find or make supports about a minimum of 20 feet off the ground, then the 20 metre band is always active. Of course the lower in frequency you go the bigger an effective TX antenna is. I like 20 metres and 40 metres myself, although 10 metres is incredible if and when it opens up.
Are you only interested in talking to rela people, or are you happy to just run digital modes, PC to PC in effect, over the airwaves? Digi modes can be effective with small inefficient aerials.
Beware of bringing RF into the house and phone wiring if you put a TX antenna in the loft... It can be done, but something external is best.
If you put a horizontal type of aerial like a dipole up outside make it so you can raise and lower it often and easily, so tuning it in is not such a pain you give up on the finer points
End fed wires are probably the least obtrusive, personally I don't like them, but if needs must they offer a means of getting on HF with something with no feeder hanging down part way along. Verticals usually need radials, either under the lawn or raised above it a bit, as a ground plane. Our front lawn is riddled with wires, but `er indoors has no idea they are there, there are easy ways to put them down with no sign at all after a couple of days.
My one tip is always buy good branded co-ax and good branded RF connectors. A Chinese one off EBAY will NOT be the same as a branded one and the huge price difference IS worth it. I would also always recommend avoiding PL type RF connectors, they are a true abortion, and a plethora of cheap out of spec ones abound. Apart from the rigs themselves with their normal PL sockets that do not offer an easy way to change them, I ONLY use N type or BNC, and ONLY branded ones. I can't tell you how much hassle Chinese junk ones have given me in the past, before my old friend bent my ear about getting what you pay for... I don't know what the budget is, but one thing I find totally indispensable, but until prices fell in the last couple of years, were considered exotic, is an antenna analyzer. Just like the best set up car in the world is useless on junk tyres, the best transceiver money can buy is a waste of time into a totally mismatched aerial.
Are you only interested in talking to rela people, or are you happy to just run digital modes, PC to PC in effect, over the airwaves? Digi modes can be effective with small inefficient aerials.
Beware of bringing RF into the house and phone wiring if you put a TX antenna in the loft... It can be done, but something external is best.
If you put a horizontal type of aerial like a dipole up outside make it so you can raise and lower it often and easily, so tuning it in is not such a pain you give up on the finer points
End fed wires are probably the least obtrusive, personally I don't like them, but if needs must they offer a means of getting on HF with something with no feeder hanging down part way along. Verticals usually need radials, either under the lawn or raised above it a bit, as a ground plane. Our front lawn is riddled with wires, but `er indoors has no idea they are there, there are easy ways to put them down with no sign at all after a couple of days.
My one tip is always buy good branded co-ax and good branded RF connectors. A Chinese one off EBAY will NOT be the same as a branded one and the huge price difference IS worth it. I would also always recommend avoiding PL type RF connectors, they are a true abortion, and a plethora of cheap out of spec ones abound. Apart from the rigs themselves with their normal PL sockets that do not offer an easy way to change them, I ONLY use N type or BNC, and ONLY branded ones. I can't tell you how much hassle Chinese junk ones have given me in the past, before my old friend bent my ear about getting what you pay for... I don't know what the budget is, but one thing I find totally indispensable, but until prices fell in the last couple of years, were considered exotic, is an antenna analyzer. Just like the best set up car in the world is useless on junk tyres, the best transceiver money can buy is a waste of time into a totally mismatched aerial.
I examined them and thought these instructions are wrong and they really need a flaring tool to be used on the outer copper jacket of the Heliax. I e-mailed the seller and was told they are fine if you just tighten them up hard, they will self flare, I should have stuck by my instincts, I now have a very scrap N type. So I made a Heath Robinson flaring tool tonight and did what I felt I should have done in the first place, and the other one went on perfectly. I guess it puts people off if they tell them they need a tool that Andrew PLC sell for £50, plus carriage from the US, plus duty, plus handling fee, plus VAT.... The one I made was from a bit of scrap steel round bar, (50 pence max) and 15 minutes on the lathe. It doesn't have a nice wooden handle though, not sure how I'll manage to sleep tonight 
