There is a tactful way to say that you are looking to move on and see who else you might contact.  It works both ways.  I've responded to questions and after a few exchanges asked to be excused only to be ignored by the ragchewer.  Me, I'd never want to give up ragchewing *or* the quickies.  It all depends on my mood.

Do you really think so?  To me it sounds like just so much more rudeness.

OK now you are just trying to make us green

I have a quarter acre and a few 100' trees.  I have up a doublet that does 30m on up running n/s and a doublet that does 160m down that runs e/w

Then I have two rotatable dipoles (10m and 15m) made from copper pipe.

As BYU suggested, having a bunch of options is really informative.  I love checking out which antenna works best on a given signal.

I understand what you are saying, but sometimes I think of the expression we have in backpacking: "Ounces make pounds."  The idea being that if you add up enough insignificant losses, they become significant.

That being said, my Palstar AT2K is always inline, so I always have the rig's meters and the cross needles on the tuner, even in bypass.

Seems to me Steve, WB2WIK runs "turnstyle" dipoles -- two dipoles situated at 90 degrees to each other and fed out of phase.  Maybe he will post the details on that for you.

In a little more space than a G5RV you can put up a 40m doublet fed with balanced line.  IMO this is a superior multiband antenna because feedline losses are minimized.


HTH

73 de Eric

We are.  Just not very good ones

Feedline losses, sure.  My first antenna was a homemade G5RV that would not tune without at least 100' of coax attached.  That never made me feel too good about that antenna.

What I mean, though is at the feedpoint -- after the feedline.  Couldn't the antenna itself act more or less like a dummy load - present the correct 50 ohm resistance but not necessarily radiate?

Is this really true?  Couldn't an antenna present 50 ohms at the feed point and act like a dummy load?

I think propagation and antenna are going to be bigger factors than the difference between 15 watts and 50 watts.

PS: since the difference is probably negligible, I'd go with the 15 watts --if only to allay the fears of some.

Yeah, I monitor the IMD on my station with a standalone monitor.  I really don't see too many horribly distorted signals out there.  As I'm sure you know, distortion can be introduced anywhere in the signal chain - even in the receiving station.

Thanks Gene,

One thing you may not know: on my Elecraft K3 ALC processing does not begin to kick in until the 5th bar is lit up.  If no ALC bars on the meter are lit up, the soundcard is underdriving the radio.

Moreover, in DATA mode, processing is not available.

73 de Eric, KG6MZS

I purchased a K3 a while back from Elecraft and I will say that their customer support is the best I have ever encountered in any business.  They make a great product and stand behind it.

It may sound sappy, but my experience with them gives me hope.  I get discouraged with other companies that do not follow through and flake out on the consumer.  Unfortunately, this is usually what companies do.

73 de Eric, KG6MZS

Thanks for the tips on the clock... I had no idea about that.

Thanks everybody for the help.  I might try and get going this weekend if the shack is cool enough.

73 de Eric, KG6MZS

Hi Mike,

Sorry about your ailment.  I like Ham Radio Deluxe and Digital Master 780.

I must warn you that because most CW is sent by human fist, digital decoders have a hard time understanding it.  During contests you can spot stations that are sending digitally that you might work, but if the operator grabs the key all that heads south.

I really would not recommend trying to jump in on DX that might be sending the CQ digitally but will send manually after that.  You do not want to be that guy in a pileup.

HTH

73 de Eric, KG6MZS