Thanks. I've tried several 2-meter mag mounts, pretty much the same style, including one brand new out of the bag. I switched antennas, but always got the same poor report. I think I probably just need help wiring this the right way. I will try to take some pictures and put them on my web site and then will send you the link so you can see how the connections are at present. Right now I have to charge up the camera...............

A friend checked out my Yaesu FT 2800 M 2 meter mobile radio and said I would need "monster audio type cable" to connect to my battery. Apparently the cable that came with the radio does not work properly or something. Everyone says there is a problem with my signal. I thought maybe the 65 watts was too much, but the signal is bad on all powers. Where can I buy monster audio cable and maybe monster fuses? Why would I need to do this? My car is a 99 Altima with an average battery. Any tips appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have two antennas I am trying to use on 75 meter ssb, at about the frequency on 3.902. One of them is a homebrew inverted L made out of 300 ohm twin lead and a ground rod. The other is a 40 meter delta loop that was cut at one end of the "triangle" and "reconnected" into the delta loop by tying off the two ends onto an insulator. The delta loop will still tune 40 meters at 1:1, but to be honest, it doesn't work at all on 75 meters and barely drops below the "infinity" marker on the tuner. On the other hand, the homebrew tunes up ok for swr, but when you press the cw keyer down, I hear a series of three beeps coming from somewhere, possibly from the computer or a speaker somewhere??? Every time I key up I hear the same three beeps. I don't hear the beeps when trying to tune the delta loop on 75 meters, but then again, the swr is 14:1 or worse. So basically I have two antennas that don't work very well on 75 meters. I am on a city lot so I don't have enough room for a full length 75 meter dipole or a G5RV. Anyone know what is causing those beeps? What does that mean to my signal? How much better would my signal be by figuring out how to get rid of those beeps. When I turn the power down way low to about 5 watts, the beeps disappear, but a 5-watt signal for a 75 meter net is not going to get through too much static. Any suggestions appreciated!!!!!!!!

I know that rigs like the ts50 are the best size for mobile HF, but I've used a Yaesu 747 for mobile, despite it's large size of about 6" high by 12" x 12." Is there any old rig that might be a cheap way of getting on hf mobile? I'm especially interested in working the 3905 Century Club nets on 75 meters. I have a 75 meter hamstick, just need a radio - does Scout make a 75 m module? Are there any other 75 meter only rigs? Thanks.

Thanks. Good points. Having a solid structure seems a lot better idea than figuring on how something will fall. I did take another look at those power lines. 12 foot was a rough guess, but a closer look puts it about 15 to 17 feet above ground. I believe the lowest line may be telephone and then there is a really thick line with thinner lines above it. Each house in the subdivision has a drop line to the side of the house. My drop line comes in right by my fuse box on the side of the house. -- My best bet for HF sounds like a tri-band mini-beam is the best antenna for a city lot my size. Maybe the TH6-JRS or Moseley minis are the ones to consider. Moseley also has 5-band, but if three band works better without 17 and 12 meters, I'd go for it instead.

I think this scenario may be possible to solve with some math equations. Anyway, here goes: My 2-section 33 foot crank up tower is 37 feet from the overhead power lines in the back yard area of my house. With an antenna on the tower (let's use an HF5B mini beam for example) it's about 40 feet to the top of the tower + antenna. The lowest power line of the power lines is about 12 feet above ground. So we have a triangle with a = 37 and b = 40. To find c we need the a2 + b2 = c2 formula. That will give me how many feet are between endpoints. However, I want to determine what will happen if the tower were somehow to fall over and how close the antenna would come to hitting the power lines. It seems to me that there would be several feet of clearance given that the power lines are already 12 feet above the "triangle" we are working with. Another consideration would be the length of the longest element on the antenna. I'm not sure a tribander with a 27-foot element would be safe to use in this situation. However, it seems like a HF5B would be reasonable safe with the longest element at 13 feet (making it 6.5 feet on each side of the tower or a radius=6.5'). My tower would be guyed of course, but this is hypothetical. As I try different size antennas, such as the MA5B and the TH6-JRS, that longest element size increases. What would be the longest element length on an antenna without jeopardizing the tower falling directly into the power lines. The reason I am asking is that I've seen some full tribander setups on towers very close to power lines and thought it was not too smart to go that route. DX may be great with a giant beam, but losing a house isn't. In any case, maybe some of our math inclined hams can work on this. Thanks.!

I'm trying to compile a list of similar mini-beam antennas such as the MA5B, the HF5B and others that offer 20/17/15/12/10 as well as those tri-band mini-beams offering 20/15/10. What do studies show about the difference between three bands and five bands on a mini-beam antenna? I've also seen six band mini-beams offered, with six meters. Monoband beams are best of course, but I'm on a city lot and need to make sure I am far enough away from the overhead power lines. The TH3 JRs looks like a good possibility, but the reviews are a little discouraging. I saw a nice mini-beam in Australia, but the cost is pretty high. Thanks in advance. My gemquad was great, but Hurricane Ike sort of totaled it, so it's time for a different antenna. I'm thinking 20/15/10 small beam.
Marty Blaise, AG5T

I have been told several times by the cw guys in our field day group that it makes no sense to have any digital operations (cw, rtty, psk31) during field day when the guys at the cw stations can have a much better hourly qso rate for the entire field day. In other words, we will get a better score if we only run cw and ssb and don't run any digital stations because digital will slow down our chances at good qso runs. If that is the case, why does anyone in Field Day bother to operate anything besides cw and ssb? It appears that nobody would have more points per hour on rtty or on psk31, so those are wasted modes because if the same was on cw, the cw guys could get the maximum points per hour. I have wanted to operate psk31 for Field Day, but never have in several years because of this reason. I can never make the Qs per hour on psk31 than the CW guys can. Anyone else facing this situation? I had hoped to show digital modes at the GOTA station, but any time you try to run psk31, the noise destroys the other cw and ssb stations, so that is another reason to not run digital. In fact, is there any good reason to use digital operations for any contest except digital only? I'm not as fast at cw as I used to be and I'm not as big on ssb as I used to be, so I enjoy digital, but in the case of Field Day it looks like I am out of luck. Should I skip the club activities and stay home and operate digital so I can do what I want to do? Any ideas appreciated.

If you look at the Desecheo log, you will see that the team members are in the logs with contacts with K5D. How did they do that? Also note that K5D has worked K5D on all bands. I'm confused and yes I worked K5D several times and am in the log. Thanks.

Just above noise level on 40 meters cw today, but not anywhere near enough to work. Propagation will get better soon, so there will be other chances. What ever happened to Kosovo? Is it a dx country yet??

(My vacation will be over soon. Will have to revert to worktime dx schedules.) -- I've noted some of the U.S. stations posting spots saying they can hear the E44 station at their location this afternoon. Right now it's about 3:15 p.m. in Houston with sunshine (no gray edge path here). 40 meters is only open to a few states now, but will change later as the sun goes down. I'm listening on 7.081 and can only hear someone whistle occasionally and one time someone said spleeet. I'm guessing those hams in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th and 9th call areas may have different periods of sun and gray edge factors, but it's pretty impressive that someone in the northern U.S. can hear all the way to the Middle East in the middle of a weekday afternoon on 40 meters. AF3Y shows 56 in SC. K0MN has a spot for 55 in Minnesota. Then again a 55/56 signal on ssb is not all that great, unless the noise level is pretty quiet. Still interesting to see that some folks can copy the middle east in the mid afternoon. I was also wondering what power the E44 group is using. I've heard 4X stations from that part of the world, but they were strong and probably were running a kw. I'd be interested to see some propagation studies comparing the Canadian border states vs. the southern border U.S. states, especially as far as sunlight levels. How much of a factor does snow play into propagation? I know height and water levels can also make a difference. One final note - don't you just love those posts that say bingoooooooooooooooooooo.

Feedline radiation setup of delta loops - the 20 meter delta loop is fed in the bottom corner of a triangle with an apex almost straight up. Think of an equilaterial triangle with a point at the top and two points on the bottom. One corner of the bottom is where the balun is. From there, I have a short section of 75 ohm and then 50 ohm to the tuner. The 40 meter is a differnet configuration with a straight line from two points across the top sloping down to one point on the bottom, but at a 45 degree angle. Just have a balun and 50 ohm coax on this one. Balun is at one of the top two top corners.

From Houston, Texas - I have yet to copy E44 on any band on any mode. I am using a 40-meter delta loop and a 20-meter delta loop, both homebrew. It seems odd that I would not have any propagation, but so far I haven't heard anything at all. I also haven't seen many spots posted from Texas area hams. Looks like I'll wait til the next E4 dxpedition, but that's ok. I'm not sure a beam at xxx feet would have even copied from my location. Is this sunspot cycle on the upswing yet??

Did some more testing on what I can hear and work from here in W5 land. It doesn't look like these delta loops are going to be able to work any dx from Europe, Africa, Asia or Australia. I can just barely hear any of the signals from those parts of the world. 3X on cw is about 339 here at best. Even some U.S. stations listed on dx summit are not receiveable at all, maybe nulled out? d44 about 339 as well here. no copy at all on TO3R reunion island. Loops just not high enough, I guess. My tower was pretty much destroyed by the hurricane, so in the future, I will definitely try to go with a tower and possibly a quad antenna again. I can see now why you need the height and the beam or quad to work the distant dx stations.

I am back on the HF bands and working some dx once again. My outdoor antennas were wiped out by Hurricane Ike. Until I can get a better antenna setup, I built two loop antennas - a 20-meter delta loop and a 40-meter delta loop. The 20-meter top is about 32 feet up and the 40-meter loop's top is around 24 feet up so they aren't all that high. -- I did some dx testing today and I was able to work HK0B on 17 meters (on the 20 loop) from my qth in Houston. I checked dx spots on dx summit and tried to see what signal strengths I could hear. I could barely hear D44C and could only just detect the European stations (this is about 2 p.m. my time). I think I had a little better reception when I had the gemquad at 34 feet up. That antenna was destroyed by the hurricane. Until I can get some kind of miniquad or minibeam up on my city lot I will see what I can get from these loops. I tried to build them for maximum dx signal (vertical radiation).
Could there be a connection between the height of the two loops and the fact that I'm not copying Europe or Africa hardly at all? Anyone using loops for dxing? I can use any tips on which way to orient the loops, etc. I copied HC8N ok, but that's a straight shot south over a lot of water from my location. I am going to run some more tests and see what dx countries I can copy and write down some reports on how I am hearing them. Thanks.
Marty, AG5T