Hi!
 I would say the most popular  6 meter antennas on the market is the 4 el and 6 el HY-Gain beams sold by
MFJ!Or the 5el Cushcraft! way back when they were sold for between 25 to 40 dollars. But these days they are asking between 149 to 250 a pop.

I have a 4 el that I bought back in 1966! I have it in the garage right now and I will be replacing all the hardware in the next few weeks with stainless steel! I have worked may states east of the Mississippi on 6 meter AM with this antenna..

Everyone uses SSB now and I believe a 4 or 5 el is just right! I worked Scotland last friday with a Home brew Squalo at 24 feet ,thru one hundred feet of twenty year old rg-58 coax ! How's that!

A 6 el beam has a pretty narrow beam width and some people use a small antenna along with it so they can hear whats going on!

I am building a moxon myself for a temporary and portable antenna ..

73 mike

By the way there is no special prep tools for this connector.

the connector has  the body,a aluminum ferrule and the ferrule nut1 There are no O rings on this.But I bought them a long time ago. the instructions say to trim the cable back with 3/8 inch of center conductor protruding.No coring toll is necessary!

You clean the center conductor twist on the connetor and then snug up the ferrule nut one turn past finger tight.

The cable is times rg-331. and I bought it almost 20 years ago at the orlando Hamfest. the dilectric is very firm not spongy.it is supposed to be gas filled foam!

I am worried about the conductivity of the cable shield to the connector body if NO-OX is used under the ferrule ring? If this was copper hard line I probably have nothing to worry about.

73 Mike

I have RG-331 1/2 inch Hardline!
I got the connectors from davis RF.

The connectors are phelps dodge 20-65a.

the Hardline has a plastic covered aluminum sheath
and a copper center conductor..

73 mike

I have two phelps dodge hard line connectors!

They are made of aluminum! When I am ready to install them I have to put NO-OX under the Ferrule ring and the
ferrule nut threads. Is that correct?

I have NO-OX  on hand but there is a conductive no-sieze compound made by Lock-tite that is available from WW Grainger. It is about $15. Am I better off using that,as regular NO-OX is not conductive?

I have used regular NO-OX on my antenna elements as the clamps are tightened it is displaced as the metal makes contact.But I read that the Hardline connectors may rotate somewhat when you are tring to tighten the "N" conectors on it while tightening them so that the silicon rubber seal makes full contact with the connector face?

 I have never installed a hardline connector before,or seen anyone else do it!

73 mike






73 Mike

Hi!

I have a Lafayette Tube tester in the grey Box!
I am not sure if it is the same one you have?
I will check it when I get home!

If it is ,I will make a copy of the book and send it to you next week!

73

Mike

I have a 100 foot piece of RG-331 1/2 inch hardline in my garage! It has been in there for about 20 years!
It has no connectors on it and the ends are not sealed!

I am wondering if this coax is still usable? I have connectors for it,But I am wondering about moisture absorbtion after all this time? Or should I scrap it and look for fresher stuff on the web!

I need to use it from HF to six and two meters.

I am thinking about running some hardline from the shack to the back yard  and putting a remote coax switch out there to cut down on the coax runs.

I was thinking of getting some more coax but I was shocked at the price of good rg-213 type coax these days.

So I figure I can cut the existing coax to the antenna
so I can double my usage..

73

Mike

Hi All!

I am getting a LCD HD TV! The Cable guy will be coming to install my HD box and DVR!

The TV will be directly above my station and I wonder if there is any interference problems from HDMI
cables? Some vendors sell them with ferrites and some dont specify!

I need to know in a hurry as I need them in a couple of days..

The tech support at the cable company says that they usually use RCA cables for thr cable box and DVD..

I am just want to be prepaired ahead of time.

73

Mike

I have seen posts about a program called IPsound that some people have tried! Google for it !It may solve your problem.
73
mike

Hi I am looking to find some 300mil Integrated circuit storage tubes! I need 100 to 120 of them.. I am located in New york city.
Any one know any companies that maybe throw them away? I have a large number of IC's in my parts collection that I need to sort out. Thanks for any Help any one can provide.

73 mike

Lowe's and Home Depot sell grey PVC
electrical juction boxes that are about 5x5x3 inches!
They have a cover with a rubber gasket to keep water out! These boxes have no holes in them .The boxes have four tabs so you can mount them !

I see some commercial Balun makers using these same boxes !

Anodized aluminum is treated to produce a heavy oxide
coating on the surface of the tubing (Inside and outside)! You need to dig a sharp meter probe into the surface to get past the oxide to get to the base metal to get a meter reading.

I have used anodized aluminum in the past! I had to use emery cloth  on the outside surface and a wire brush mounted in a electric drill to wear off the oxide on the inside at the clamp points.

Once the oxide is removed you should use No-Ox on the joint to be sure the contgact point will not reoxidize.

The surface of aluminum quickly produces an oxide coating in the presence of oxygen! On regular
aluminum tubing (like Texas Towers sells)the oxide is very thin and the clamping pressure from a hose clamp will easily displace it. But on anodized tubing the
aluminum is treated to enhance the oxide to improve weather resistance to keep it shiny. Anodized aluminum
was not meant to be used for antennas,But can be made to work ok
But No-Ox is usually a good idea on aluminum antenna joints.

73

Mike..

I built one recently! It was eay to tune up!
the gamma match clamp is is about a inch from the
elbow.

If you did not install the butterfly plate the antenna reonates above 52mhz. You can probably
make the tubing pieces about 1/8 inch longer..
so the butterfly will be made smaller..

I measured swr at 1.2 at 50.3mhz at 12 feet up..

73 mike

I dont know if you have a DTV tuner yet?

My Dad lives in Daytona Beach! Last October I bought
him a LG DTV tuner with a DVD R/W drive at a local
TV dealer in Port Orange. I also bought a Winegard
amplified dipole antenna.

Let me say that he is fifty air miles from the transmit antenna near Lake Mary!
His analog TV reception is almost no picture but sound ok!

When I set up the DTV box and antenna it detected
8 analog stations(reception still crummy) and 28
DTV stations.

All DTV stations were crystal clear! the antenna was laying on the sofa 18
off the ground! It made no difference which way the antenna was pointed .There were no ghosts..

There are amplified DTV antennas with built in rotators available on E-bay for less than fifty dollars..

You live south of Gainsville! With a amplified antenna
up abot twnty to thirty feet you should get
reception from Lake mary possably plus Jacksonville
and Georga stations.

Be sure to use good Quad shielded coax!
I buy Carol cable coax at Home depot and put
my own connectors on.This is exellent cable..

let us know how you make out!

73
Mike

I have a 24 foot aluminum painters pole from Home Depot which is naot too bad.

Max gain systems has a Fiberglass pole that they say is quite strong and ridgid... check out thier web site..
73
mike

HDTV/DTV are all on UHF feq's! There is only a very small chance that any HF or six meter rig will interfere with them unless thier Cable interconnections to the tuner are really poor.

I cannot wait for the DTV transition to get back on Six meters as I live in a chanel two area!

I set up a DTV setup for my Dad in florida recently and I think any interference will only cause a small ammout of pixelation that they wont even notice..

73
Mike