I have been eyeballing the new Kenwood 590s.

So far the reviews have been stellar. 
You do get a lot for the price and 2k should work well here.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/9266

Just my 2¢

Shawn
KL3DL

That is why governments should not be allowed to meddle with economies or climates...

Governments want to bury the air plants need to live, and print trillions of dollars to cover the extreme costs of doing so.

Next the government will mandate that crops must be watered with a sports drink to help give the plants electrolytes.

Must I show more proof that we live in an Idiocracy?

Hey Rick,

My main issue is that there are not many folks out there that use G code to program a CNC anymore.
In most industries there is some sort of interpreter or pathing program that the programmer is passing the data through. Today, most major CNC companies offer a pathing application bundled with thier equipment.

To do three letter initials in AutoCAD, export the DXF, path and push the program down to the CNC that I used would take me less than 5 min.

Now, if Chuck wants to learn G code for his class to either work with a machine directly or to create an interpreter and pathing program, that is a whole different world.

I was paid to get designs drawn up and pushed to the CNC for rapid cutting and production. I was good at my job and I knew what I was doing.

Shawn
KL3DL

 

A: Im sure this is the wrong place for this post of yours.

B: I did AutoCAD and CNC work for almost 4 years. Why would you want to learn G code? G code was prima facta when CNC was new 20+ years ago.

C: If anything you need software that can convert a DXF to a language the CNC machine understands, if it is G code, I think a program called MasterCAM may still be able to output G code.

If you need to learn it old school then these links should help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-code

http://www.linuxcnc.org/handbook/gcode/g-code.html

Shawn
KL3DL

Fantastic, thanks for the info.

Shawn
KL3DL

oh? Then what would help with that?

I see.

So, if I lose the choke, then any RF will get into the ground Right?

I didn't want to buy some artificial ground, I just want to make a good RF ground on the cheap to help lower the noise floor.  

Hi folks,

I would like to add a RF ground to my 2nd floor shack.
I know it is not a good idea because of the ground acting like and antenna.

So I came up with this idea... see link.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q244/Kryoclasm/2nd-floor-rf-ground.png

Would this work and if so how would I make the RF choke to be effective?

Thanks for any and all input,
Shawn
KL3DL

BTW, I would love it if politicians in DC would help save the earth from them by cutting down on their CO2 and Methane output...

I am willing to supply the duct tape and corks for their holes. 

For anyone who believes this 2012 end of the world BS....

CAN I HAZ YOUR SUFF?  

Seriously.

73

Thanks for all the help guys. 

I do get a great swr match when using the tuner on 20m 40m and 18m bands. Yes, I do have to fiddle with the transmatch when I tune around the bands and I have to adjust the finals on my TS-530s when I change bands for transmit, but I have made cheat sheets to help with both.

I guess I was over concerned with the native swr when bypassing the tuner would somehow help things out across the board.

Based on the great abundance of info provided, I will stick with what I got on this antenna for now... I may add a multi for 10m in the near future as I am mostly deaf on that band as things are.

73
Shawn
KL3DL

1) Why are you feeding it with 300 ohm twin-lead instead of coax?
* As I understand it, it should keep common mode current down to a minimum.

2) Are you using a Transmatch?
* Yes, a MFJ versa tuner II.

3) How and where are you measuring the SWR?
* From the tuner's meter.

4) How long is the feedline, and how is it connected to the rig?
* About 16'. I never did measure it exactly. I would love to get it further away, but is not possible at this time.

Sorry folks, I didn't want to cause a lot of grief.
I am a new Ham, self taught and no elmer.

I want to learn as much as I can about antennas so I can make some good ones. Seems to me, it doesn't matter what kind of receiver one has, it isn't much with out a good antenna. I don't have much spare cash, so everything is on the cheap for me.

73
Shawn
KL3DL

That happens to be one of the articles I used as a reference when I first built the dipole. I also used my ARRL 2010 handbook and my ARRL basic antennas book.

I did mess up the measurements, thus my original question.

This antenna does work with my tuner, I have made a good number of contacts so far, I just want to make it better.

Using standard or metric, is easy either way, whatever happens to be more convenient. I find doing my math in standard decimal and or metric, then convert the final numbers to standard and fractions works out good so I don't have to do fraction math.

The real key is making sure not to mis-measure the wire by reversing numbers in my head when I do my final cut like I did the first time.

Shawn <-- Publicly educated and dyslexic. Joy.  
KL3DL

Not a folded dipole...

It's a fairly typical wire dipole. Using 14 AWG insulated solid copper wire stretched between the trees on both ends of my property.

Everyone should watch Idiocracy. Learn its lessons well. 

Shawn
KL3DL