Thanks Bob. As far as the meter on the radio. It's not the most informative. It's a little vertical bar graph. No numbers. The manual gives no info other than to tell you how to turn it on. According to posts on the 857 news group, 1.5:1 is about 1/16" on the scale or 5 pixels high. 2:1 is about 10 pixels up. My display shows no pixels. Which must either mean the SWR is VERY low or I don't have it turned on right or something. The same scale also indicates recieved signal strength and that works fine though. The radio also has as "High SWR" indicator on the display that the manual says comes on at 3:1. That has never come on.


As for the Vanco meter. I have no manual for it. According to www.aesham.com the meter is for from 3.5mhz to 150mhz. So 6 meters is covered fine.

And you're right. SWR is singular. Using plural for it is an old habit I'm trying to break.

For Allison:

I am keeping the power low. At 10 watts in fact. I'm not about to crank it up until I KNOW the SWR is ok. If it is a bad solder I should find out when I swap the coax.

We'll see what tomorrow tells me when I swap the coax.

Thanks all,
Charlie

> It's probobly water inside your feedline.

I don't think it is. It's fairly new with factory connectors. Plus I have it taped up and sealed pretty well I think. I will swap it with the feedline to my 2 mtr antenna tomorrow and see what happens though. I think I'm leaning towards the meter being flaky.

Thanks,

Just finished my 6 mtr dipole. Trying to tune it and the SWR's tend to climb after being keyed up for a few seconds. Basically, when I first push the PTT the SWR is about 1.5:1, but after about ten seconds it slowly climbs to 2:1 or better.

Dipole is 14 gauge insulated wire about 15 feet up in an orange tree. Feed line is 50 ft of RG8X until I get my LMR400 run. I have a choke of 6 turns of RG8X at the antenna.

The display on the radio (ft857d) is NOT showing high SWR. The meter is an older Vanco SWR-1 that I was given so the meter may not be accurate. (Unfortunately that's all I have to check it with right now.)

Ideas anyone?

Thanks,
Charlie

On Tuesday 01 February 2005 12:17, you wrote:
> Posted By N0XMZ
> I'm actually using a j-pole for the 2m uplink on AO-51...

A J-pole.? Really? I thougt they were deaf overhead? Well, you can't argue with success.

I figured out my timing problem. Seems the keps were off for the ISS. Since I loaded the latest ones I'm ok now.

Good luck on your yagi. That's what I'm building next I think.

Charlie,

Thanks.

Tried 'em. Got nothing. I've also tried every other one in the area that I've found on various web sites. Either I'm doing something very wrong or there are no active ones around here. Or maybe my antenna is completly deaf.  And that Glendale one(53.12) is only about 3 or four miles from me. Maybe I'll drive over and park under it. HI HI.

Charlie

Jeff,

I generally listen to USB when on 6 mtrs, but would be happy to set up a time to meet you on FM. I'm over in Glendale. I've had my 6mtr rig about a month and haven't talked to anyone on 6 yet. I heard one station on during the contest weekend but was busy and couldn't talk at the time.

Which repeater can you hit? One of the guys at HRO said there aren't any 6 mtr repeaters active around here. I'd like to find one.

73
Charlie

I'm confused...

Here are the frequencies(memory channels) I have programmed for the AO27 and AO50 satellites.

      rx          tx
(1)  436.805      145.845
(2)  436.800      145.8475
(3)  436.795      145.850
(4)  436.790      145.8525
(5)  436.785      145.855

These should compensate for the doppler shift and let me "tune" through the frequencies as the satellite flies over.

My questions are these...

Do these look right or should I use more channels(memories) and put them closer together? (Sometimes the right frequency seems to be between what I have programmed.)

I almost always hear the satellites better when they are going away from me than when they are approaching. Approximately one third of when I can hear them is when they are approaching and about two thirds is when they are going away. Is this normal?

I believe all my program settings, etc are correct so I am sure my timing is correct. Computer clock is set, Keplerian elements updated every few days, etc.

Radio is an FT-857D. I'm using Predict 2.2.2 and Gsat for tracking on a Linux system and Winorbit 3.6 on a Windows machine. Both are predicting passes within a few seconds of each other(so that's not a problem). Antenna (for now) is only a 1/4 wave GP (at 20 feet) which I know limits me, but should that affect which part of the pass I can hear best? It doesn't seem to matter whether the bird is going north to south or south to north. I still hear better when it's going away.

Here's one more thing. My predictions often don't match the times predicted on www.heavens-above.com when I compare them. Sometimes they are more than an hour different than mine. Sometimes they don't even list passes that my computers predict and I can hear. This happens whether I pick my town, Glendale, AZ from their list(they say it's  33.539N/112.185W/GMT-7) or use the actual GPS coords(33.5757N/112.168W/GMT-7) for my QTH.

Any advice would appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

Thanks all for the quick responses and help. I started building the antennas this afternoon. Now to get the mast and stuff and start putting it all up.

I plan on building two antennas and want to know if I can put them both on one mast. The antennas are a simple 2mtr ground plane, like the one seen at http://www.hamuniverse.com/2metergp.html, for local FM repeater work and a 6mtr square halo like http://www.qsl.net/k4pwo/sloop.htm for SSB.

My plan is to mount them both to the same mast. And mount the mast on the roof of the house. I would set the base of the mast into a mount similar to the one shown at the bottom of http://www.bwantennas.com/pro/mast.pro.htm#mk114-rm. That mount would set on an 18" x 18" steel plate to distribute the weight better. (All then anchored to the roof.) Then I would run guy lines to keep the mast upright.

My main questions are these...

Can the 6mtr square halo be positioned at mid-mast or should it be at the top? If it can sit mid-mast then I can put the 2mtr antenna at the top. Also, how close can the halo be below the 2mtr antenna? If the halo has to go at the top, then I will probably need a separate mast for each antenna.

I am thinking of using a 20' mast. (I am not sure a 10' mast will be long enough for everything) Is there going to be room for both antennas and still get my guy lines high enough up the mast for good support? Can I attach my guy lines above the halo and below the ground plane? I would prefer to use wire guys rather than synthetic so they will be more permanent.

Which would be better for the mast? A couple of sections of Radio Shack type mast? I have seen some people use a 20' (I think) piece of chain-link fence rail for a mast. Or maybe one long piece of electrical conduit? Also, how many guy lines? Three or four?

I'm trying to keep the price down as much as I can and still put up a good stable mount. ANY suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. Also, there are not really any tall trees around other than a couple palm trees. And the house is one of the few two story houses in the neighborhood so I have some height advantage there as well. It's about 25' at the peak and since the terrain is pretty flat here I can see a LONG ways from my roof.

Sorry about the long post, but I was trying to be clear about the details.

Thanks,
Charlie

No, I guess I didn't know you couldn't end-feed a half wave antenna. Or I've forgotten. At any rate. Thanks for the info. Both to AA4PB and WB2WIK. That's why I ask here when I haven't found an answer on my one. You usually get lots of good help from lots of good people. I guess I'll probably trim it to 1/4 wave for 6 meters and then add a tuner when I add the HF.

Thanks again,

Am I correct that a 102" whip with the spring(108" total) is almost the exact length needed for a 1/2 wave antenna for 6 meters? Possibly a little long if you count the ball mount as well, but by shorten the whip a couple inches it should be right on.

Also, how usable would this setup be for 10 meters without adding an auto-tuner.

Thanks,

Thanks all. I appreciate the info. As I said before, right now I have no real plans to use the cross-band. It is more of "something that might be handy for something someday". But, I can see if I ever do want to use it I need to be careful about how it gets used.

Thanks again,

I am considering getting an FT-8800R 2/70 dual band radio for my mobile. I have some questions about how cross band repeating works. I understand you can set it to recieve a specific 2 meter frequency and have it repeat it on a 70cm frequency and vice-versa. My questions are...

Does it repeat in real-time like a convention repeater? I would think so. I don't think it records and repeats like a pocket repeater. Correct?

Does it repeat both directions? In other words, what it hears on 2mtr is repeated on 70cm AND what it hears on 70cm is also repeated on 2mtrs?

Can the FT-8800R(or other cross-bander) repeat from one 2 mtr frequency to another 2 mtr frequency? (Or from one 70cm freq to another 70cm freq.)

How does it handle identification of itself? Normal repeaters generally broadcast their ID every few minites. Does it (or any other cross-bander) have this capability? I didn't find it in the manual I downloaded. Shouldn't it have to ID itself someway to comply with FCC regs? If not how do others deal with this?

I may never actually use the cross-band capability but since I am getting a dual bander I thought it might be handy some time in the future.

Thanks,
Charlie

Just saw your post Pat. Thanks.

If grounding was a problem wouldn't the SWR's be higher all around? At 146mhz its fine.

I installed the antenna about 3 or 4 months ago and checked all the connections at that time with an ohm meter. Good continuity to ground. Nothing shorted. All looked fine then. Didn't get a chance to actually test it with an SWR meter until a couple weeks ago. That's when I posted the question.

Thanks all.