My Amateur Radio Life

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HF Antenna work on VA3QV/m (Part 4)

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 04:43 PM PDT
https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2020/04/...a3qv-m-part-4/


Well its done.Â* At least as much as I am willing to do for now.



Late this morning I brought the MFJ Antenna Analyzer and the FT450 out to
the small un used parking lot and started to adjust the Wolf River Coil.

They claim its a 10-40m coil but .Â* They were not exactly correct. which
was a good thing for me



As I was using a 102 inch whip at the end of the coil I was able to get it
to load up on 20 meter band, the 40 meter band and . (wait for it). the 60m
band.Â* I knew that the coil was not going to do anything on 80m and I did
try but other than getting some fresh air. no real suprises.

On 20m with the collar just about at the top on the coil I had a great SWR
between 14.140 (Canadian 20m calling freq) and the top end of the band.Â*
Below 14.140 I did need to use the built in autotuner of the FT 450 but how
often am I going to be working mobile from that low in the band

On 40m where I had used it previously the SWR good from just below 7.100
(Trans Provincal Net Frequency) to the top of the band at 7.299.Â* In a
couple of spots the tuner might of been needed but for the most part all
was good.

Now on 60m.Â* I set the sweet spot at 5.350 and the 5 preset channels in the
450 had no problems and the auto tuner was not needed.Â* I have never
operated on 60m so this was uncharted ground and I heard nothing but.Â* I am
guessing it was just the poor band conditions.Â* Time will tell on this one



If you look closely you can see the marks I made with a Sharpie to make it
easier to find the sweetspots again

I did not bother trying the WARC Bands (12,17,30) as I am setting up the
truck for travelling and not DXing.



Yaesu FTM 7250 DR on the top and Yaesu FT450AT on the bottom.



It did take me a little more time than expected so the re running of the
power cord will have to wait for another day but everything else got done
and seems to work fine.Â* On 20m SSB I did make a contact with a station in
North Texas but the notepad had not made it into the truck yet so.Â* Thats
about as much info as I have on that80m all is done for now.Â* The truck is
ready to go and all we have to do now is be patient and wait for the
lockdown to end so we can freely travel somewhere and really give the
equipment a proper shakedown cruise.

Stay Safe

73bob