30 meter dipole down

high winds in the night snapped the poly cord holding the high end =(
it was old and sun affected.
need to rethink materials.
i've heard about dacron rope.
found none locally yet.

Kim VK5FNET

30 meter receive dipole up

On Saturday Karl, VK5FOSS came over and we hacked together a new antenna for 30 meters. Its amazing what a second pair of hands can help achieve, with masts and measuring. The dipole is for 10.140MHz receive for QRSS. Runs approximately North-South, so should have VK2ZAY broadside off the eastern lobe. Maybe VK1AA also.

I no longer have a dipole for 40 meters. To be honest I wasn't using it very much. There just isn't space at the moment. Everything on the work bench/kitchen table is a little bit crowded, aiming to take a week off work soon and get stuck into the painting in the spare room that will become a study for the XYL, then shuffle things around and prepare my study/shack.

Kim VK5FNET

new 10m dipole

Replaced the dipole this morning. Cut to length some pvc coated speaker cable that had once been an end fed long wire. Its light and grey so not so easy to see as the red 30amp power cable I was using before. Also ran coax straight up to the center of the dipole and will run a similar arangement to the QRSS Rx of Hans Summers, G0UPL. Now onto modifying the receiver =).

72's

Kim - VK5FNET

Saturday works

It was pretty hot today, was forecast to be 39c. Didn't feel like it, but did slow me down running about the place getting the antenna up. None the less I have a dipole for 28.188MHz up. Its currently mounted as the third guy rope of the mast that I ran the old WiFi gear on. The router board that was running the WiFi stopped for no particular reason, so I'm suspecting the power supply section of the board, needs further investigation. I removed all the WiFi gear from the mast and reset two of the stainless steel guy ropes. Made the 10 meter antenna the third guy...

It works, probably not nearly as well as I'd like, perhaps I should build a Z-Match tuner for it instead. So, I setup the little Kenwood and tuned all around 10m. There was some fast CW but little else was heard on the band.

So, the 'ladder line' is a nasty hack. I grabbed a couple of plastic tent pegs and some cable ties. Its not so good, needs frequent adjusting. There was plenty of activity on 40 meters. This little dipole is about six meters off the ground, double the height of the previous dipole for 40m.

Actually it is the 40m dipole with the rest as the ladder line. And lots of string and a couple of eletric fence insulators. The old balun is currently in, but I'm not sure that the 4:1 is appropriate. Is a 1:1 better suited to a ladder line? Sorted out some coax and connectors too.

Dug through some boxes that I picked up at the last AHARS meet, grabbed some bits for to setup the audio into the peecee. Also found a 0C70 and a 0C71 ... I think they are germanium audio transistors.

72's

Kim - VK5FNET