I use a Jackite mast and two 20' blackwidow poles to make an inverted V but only in a temp backyard setup. The Jackite is wire tied to an expandable base tri-pod and the two blackwidows are slide over a ground stake hammered in the ground. On a breezy spring day, this assembly can get flappy as a wet noodle if it isn't loaded up right mechanically.

It might work better if the Jackite were based to the fence and loaded up hooked over toward the house just like those mobile antenna's you see on the trucks. That way, as long it the additional wind load won't break the mast, it always has a load on it to return to resting position without swaying all over the place and the wind load has to exceed that preload to move the mast. Maybe you can get that 44' wire back to the base without it being totally vertical.

Just a thought.

K4PP

I also put in a ground rod at the base of my vertical and mounted a lightning arrestor to it. I have been meaning to put one up at the entry to the house (quite a run from the antenna) but just haven't done it yet. I went through the same thing as it seems like the at the antenna was the logical place, but then there is the coax run up to the house, the point beyond which you want protected. I finally decided two wouldn't hurt and would be a little more protection. You still need to bond all the ground rods and back to the AC service ground.

K4PP

Since I just went through the learning phase I can explain how I did it which seemed to help. First I never treated it as an absolute goal, I just gave it a shot with practice about 15 mins a day probably about 3 days a week. I told myself like anything else if you just practice it regularly you'll eventually learn it. I practiced copying with G4FON fairly regularly. Sending took me almost no time to learn and I was mostly just transcribing visual text into the code and seemed rather easy. I fell way behind on copying spending a lot of time on sending. Eventually, I realized when listening to qso's on air there was something I was missing because these hams were clearly not transcribing from text either in their head or on paper, and the guy copying could not possibly be writing this stuff down that fast. I read up on the suggestions like you are doing and I pieced out two things: practice regularly in real qso's on air as well as software tools, and use the sounds of the letters and words alone for copying.

I went back to re-learn copying with a different method. I decided on a 25 wpm letter sound rate and I practiced until eventually it was just the sound of the letter meant the letter! I treated it as learning a sound signature and learned all 26 + 10 sounds at 25 wpm until when each sound was played it was a letter as if just spoken. This helped tremendously, and made me feel as if I was on a downward side of a hill where things began to come more naturally with less struggle. Currently, I still struggle with rag chews because I haven't gotten where sending relative to thought is seamless so I tend to stick to structured qso formats. I can copy much better than I send and I have a bad habit of playing games like morse runner and pileup runner at extreme speeds which really don't do anything for learning to ragchew but are great for DX'ing and contest. This has caused me to be able to grab calls like I5IHE at 45 WPM without a hitch, but I drop down to around 15 - 20 WPM for a ragchew and a little struggle there to hold a good conversation. I still follow my original premise that if I keep at it, it all gets better.

Hang in there it all comes together in time.


K4PP      

The noise did grow again yesterday and by afternoon S5 again. I drove around within a quarter mile of the neighborhood checking and everything was quiet, except when I go to that pole 300 ft over from the house and stand under it with the HT it is LOUD! I went ahead and called the utility company and a crew came by my house and I let him hear it and explained the problem, showed him some of my equipment. He just mentioned that they have a person who specializes in this and would have to call that in. We'll get through and enjoy the holiday and then hopefully I'll get a call from them to fix this.

Thanks for your help and Happy Thanksgiving


K4PP

Thanks for the reply. Last night the noise remained present well into the night and early morning at S2-S3 but the signature changed to 60Hz with no 120, sometimes dropping off to a few snaps and pops. I got up early this morning and the last pop was heard at about 5:00am. Quiet as a mouse on 15m and up right now. I'll see what happens as the days wears on.

Thanks,

K4PP

Is it possible to have power line noise that is not across all bands? Like 15m and up?

 I am off work this week and wanted to enjoy some 15m but I have a noise that begins mid morning and subsides at night. It sounds like power line noise, raspy crackling. It begins after sun up with a few pops and cracks and works into a full on S5 noise. Today, when the noise was once at a constant S5 I fed the audio into my TEK 465B Oscilloscope and saw the noise cycle were occuring at 1/120th a burst a second, sometimes at 1/60th with the snappling crackling. The noise is not present at all from 20m down  but it is present on 15m and up at same level on both my tri band rotatable dipole and 40m monopole (listening on 15m).

Today I used my VX-8R on 2m AM with my Arrow antenna to locate what I believe is a pole or the line about 200-300 ft from my fixed antenna. However it's hard to tell, sometimes the noise seem to be from this way or that unless I am 100 ft from the pole either side and then the beam points to the pole. Can it be power line noise if it is only on 15m and up?

Thanks,

K4PP

"Opinions? Obsession over an unimportant detail, or possibly an improvement in capacitor ESR?"

I have a loop that uses clamped connections and small soldered areas. It doesn't use a butterfly capacitor but considering how well it works with the connections its not supposed to have, I believe any of your designs that you've shown will work exceptionally well. The biggest challenge will be the construction process, but it looks like you are well on your way.

K4PP

That design sounds cool!. If you build this please do tell us how you rolled the 32cmx50cm sheets into the 10cm tubes and then put them on the radius of 64cm to form the loop. That's got me really interested.

K4PP

Would it work to fix the plates and loop per band, and move some stray capacitance around to tune it?

K4PP

Not necessarily the best but loads of fun is the K3NG keyer. Mostly because it works and can be junked out on an Arduino protoboard in short order. Great for use with N1MM Logger.

http://radioartisan.wordpress.com/arduino-cw-keyer/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/me_n_my_xv/6676662471/in/photostream/lightbox/

K4PP

I have a 3 band rotatable dipole up, Mosley TA-31-M, that works great. I have dodged the beams since I knew these were going to be my primary all round antenna. For the record, I am in the process of installing a 33 ft ground mounted vertical for 40. Not sure how big your lot is but my dipole is up about 35 ft on one of these with a rotator at the top. http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Tilt-Over_Mast It was not nearly as expensive as a tower and it doesn't really draw attention. It will need to be guyed though for your storms in FL. My dipole works fine and is quiet. On the tri-bands a lot of stations will be running the beams to you so you can factor that in to your decision too.

K4PP

 

I've always like "best" since the end sounds more or less reverse of the front separated by a dit. Although I almost never use it, I like to listen when sent "best 73", two sounds where the end sounds reverse of the front.

K4PP

Just do a search on Pelican Cases. Once you find one the size you want, you can usually shop for it online.

K4PP

Sure, you can use the photo. I am an ME.

Paul, K4PP

I saw your web page, really nice. My loop is 3.3 ft dia. / 1 meter with a vacuum 10-500pf. It sits 3 ft off the ground and separates from the base so I can store it inside and carry in the truck using a cradle. I built it as a portable use antenna. You can see a picture of it and my SWR curves here http://www.flickr.com/photos/me_n_my_xv/sets/72157629692467226/ If you haven't already, you need to join the yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagLoop/ it seems to be where everyone is going and I have detail photo's of my construction there. First, this was not an inexpensive antenna or quick antenna to make, and its a compromise in that you'll never really get all the power you put in to radiate. However, its really small, sits on the ground, and makes contacts all day long. I knew up font I was going to use a vacuum variable because I wanted to run 100 watts or less. I decided to go with a gamma match because mechanically robust and of the folks I have seen built with a gamma, non of them seem to have questions getting the loop to work first try. Once the gamma has been set, the swr at resonance won't really change. Mine does a little due to ground wet or dry, near a gutter, etc. It's actually the best in my house which is up off the ground about 3ft so the antenna sits about 6ft. I drive the capacitor with a step motor and an arduino and driver combo, again I have a description of that in the files at the yahoo groups. I use an IC-7000 and rigged the tune connector to send a 10 watt carrier and while driving the motor, feedback is by watching the SWR meter. It's quick, and I did not want to be tied to a computer or elaborate control box.

I have had all kinds of performance experiences with the antenna both with 5w and 100w. Generally, the loop receives well. It's deceptively quiet. The signals from DX will generally be down but the noise is so low I'll hear them. And, generally if I hear the DX, unless there is a pileup, I can work them. Often repeats are required though. If the band is open, it's going to sing, but generally anything sings when the band is open  . If your neighbor or your kids fires up the plasma TV, look out, you'll think you've been dive bombed.

I've also had stations pounding in from FL who can't even hear me and I am in AL. Then again, I got the Indy 500 special event station recently on the first try in a pileup, armchair copy. Also, took the antenna over to a friends where we got most of the museum ships without trouble. It's a fun antenna and it works. For me personally, I wouldn't build one as a station antenna, but that is just me.

With the noise on the ground comment, I just meant that the antenna is quiet but if there is anything radiating noise, like a plasma TV or other, or generally found in a congested location, like an apartment it's going to hear it good. Whereas antenna mounted up high isn't.

Paul, K4PP