After portable operations, Saturday, 16 December 2023, at Heyburn WMA, POTA K8124, where I spent what felt like too much time erecting my inverted-V EFLW antenna, I identified some changes to improve my efficiency at getting on air. i. Add a keychain split-ring to the masthead to stop the top section dropping out of sight and becoming unreachable when the mast is vertical. ii. Replace the masthead fitting with a stainless steel carabiner. iii. Use a drive-on mast mount instead of guying to tent pegs. Read the full document at the link below drive.proton.me/urls/NC6ZDT2BV0#CFgiMn1IFeVX Andrew, W5AWS. -=-=-=-

By: W5AWS Motivation From the point of view of efficiency, tuning an antenna to resonance at the fre-quency of transmission makes sense in that it ensures maximum transfer of power, which is all well and good until we QSY to another frequency, forcing a need to re-tune or acceptance of the impedance mismatch and reflected power in the feed-line. An End-Fed Half-Wave (EFHW) is an antenna that is a half-wavelength at the lowest frequency of operation, making the odd and even harmonics of the fundamental frequency available across the bands for which it is designed to work; even so, an […]

Shared from W5AWS This video is a useful explanation of the various DeoxIT cleaners and lubricants, including CRC QD and Maxpro, and their use:  

Recently I purchased a Jackery Explorer 1000.  Ive been running a few experiments to see what I would be able to run at home, and one of them was to see how well things performed using the Jackery to power the ham gear. So, on TWOsday, 2/22/22 (sorry – I had to throw that one in) I tuned into the TARC net using the Jackery for power. The radio equipment I have is an Icom 7100 with an Alinco DM-330MV power supply (see attached).   The power supply, by itself, pulls about 10 watts of power on average.  Turning on […]