clv101 wrote:Tarrel wrote:What's your callsign CLV? I'll listen out for you. Any particular HF bands you frequent?
M6VER We're doing our intermediate licence next month and the advanced in May. Haven't got an HF antenna up yet... it'll be a few weeks 'til we're on air.
Congratulations on the M6. The 857 is a nice piece of kit. Amazing that something that size can pump out 100 Watts. I went for the 817, as we already have a 100W HF base station. The 817 is only 10W, but it is very versatile on power supply. It even comes with a holder for some AA's. Have managed to talk to Sweden on it though.
Have you got an antenna-tuner? If so, you could get yourself up and running on HF with a simple long-wire antenna. Get a ball of string or some paracord, tie a golf ball to one end. Chuck it over as high a branch on a tree as possible (say at the end of your garden). Tie a length of single core wire to the string and haul it up to the branch. You can run the other end of the wire through an upstairs window and straight into the antenna tuner. Run an earth lead from the tuner down to earth, and hook the tuner up to the radio with a bit of coax. Adjust the controls on the tuner to minimise your SWR and you're away! Can of course do variations on this with two trees, a mast, etc., so long as the wire is insulated from what you're suspending it from by a length of rope. You MUST have a tuner though, otherwise you'll need a proper tuned antenna. Don't be tempted to connect the long wire straight into the back of the radio and start banging out 100Watts, otherwise bye-bye FT857!
Failing that, you could create a home made tuned dipole that will go sta.right into the radio, but this will be band-specific. The long wire will work on any band - just need to adjust for it on the tuner.
(Sorry to hijack the thread folks - got a bit carried away!
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Engage in geo-engineering. Plant a tree today.