Rebuilt my dipole this past weekend...

[timbo]

...and what a difference! After having a half dozen pines taken down this past year that had held up my previous dipole, I needed to rethink my antenna situation. I had thrown up a low dipole fed with window line just get on the air but it was basically a cloud burner...takeoff angle was probably pretty darned near 90 degrees straight up.

I had a good friend come over who is well known for getting antennas way up there...we picked a few possible trees that would work as good supports and went to work. He uses a bow and arrow, pulling 20 pound test line behind it. Considering the winds we had this past Saturday, he did really well. We got the antenna up about 60 feet...I got on the air that evening and was able to work almost everything I heard, even a Lebanese station I’d been trying to work for several months.

This weekend I’m going to tag on two 60’ lengths, one on each end so I can have a full size 160 meter dipole, first one I’ve ever had. I am still running 100 watts so on 160, it’ll be a piss weak signal but I should be able to have fun regardless.

Someday, I’d like to have a tower once again with my 5 element 6 meter beam on it as well as a tribander, but for now, at least I’m back on the hf bands with a decently high dipole.

 

[timbo]

OK, I couldn't wait until the weekend...I just put 60 extra feet on each end of my new dipole tonight...in the dark even. I was wearing a little head lamp which helped a little but I almost impaled myself after tripping several times on logs laying on the ground in the woods with broken branches sticking up in the air. It tunes up great on 160 now but found I needed to switch from my 4:1 balun I've been using for years to my 1:1 baloon...after switching to that balun, my auto tuner was happy. Next project (other than my 4-1000 amp), will be a homebrew link coupled tuner.

After tuning around on 160 tonight, it looks like I may need to brush up on my CW a bit...lots of great stations on right now...a Greenland station, a Faroe Island station, and a bunch of others. SSB seems to be mostly Good ol' boy nets...

 

[UJay]

CQWW SSB contest this weekend. Ill be on a multiop team in NorthWest CT, give the dipole a workout on phone!

 

[richc]

Did you install a flux capacitor? Could come in handy when the SHTF.

 

[timbo]

CQWW SSB contest this weekend. Ill be on a multiop team in NorthWest CT, give the dipole a workout on phone!

I will be around some of the weekend...I heard some folks talking about the contest on the air last night but thought it was the CQWW CW contest. I'll have to recheck that. What call sign is the multi-op going to use? I'll be listening for your station.

 

[timbo]

Did you install a flux capacitor? Could come in handy when the SHTF.

You know Rich, I looked everywhere for the one I used to have but I think I may have used it when I built my bilateral sarenigator...

 

[UJay]

@timbo I am part of the team using the callsign N1MM. It's a DX contest, so please don't waste your time on me and work some DX!!
CW is at the end of November, this weekend is Phone.

Preference for me is CW, 100%, but any contesting is welcome.

 

[timbo]

@timbo I am part of the team using the callsign N1MM. It's a DX contest, so please don't waste your time on me and work some DX!!
CW is at the end of November, this weekend is Phone.

Preference for me is CW, 100%, but any contesting is welcome.

I'll listen for you guys on 40 or 75. I think I met Tom many years ago when I was a tech at HRO in Salem...that would've been the early 90's. I was there for a little over 8 years. They dumped the tech job and offered me a sales position...I tried it but bailed after a year or two...sales is not my thing. I'd much rather be fixing stuff.

My call is KB1MM...we'd run across each other in contests, usually when we'd go back to the calling station that was saying, "the Mike Mike station please"...