Experiencing HAM Radio - based in the UK. Operating and antennas, HF,VHF,UHF. This channel keeps it real, down to earth and aims to be positive about a great hobby.
I had an actual Larkspur tank whip on my Mini in the mid 80s. Mounted on two ladder bars. Quarter wave on 14 MHz. TS520 radio. Interesting antenna to drive around with. People cruelly said it looked like a dodgem car.
Some of my best Contacts have been with a 9ft tank whip. No lossy loading and almost impossible to break. I regularly used one back in the late 80s/ early 90s on a Mini Metro. 😂 Bought another at the turn of the millennium to use on a camper but unfortunately i accidentally left it in it when i sold it. I may just have to grab another now i have fresh interest. Thanks Tim
Great drive on mast holder. We do the same in the US. I use a flag pole holder . I do want a better one. getting that 12.4 meter mast . I got the 10 meter DX commander one. Both Black and the green one that is a whole antenna. great stuff to have. I been experimenting with 43 ft into a 4:1 UNUN . works out about 5/8 wave at 20 meter band. I got a tune of 1.7 SWR with just cur wire and put it up. I hit the ATU on IC 7300 and worked a nice pile up . I did have ground radial field. I had to slope antenna being only 10 meter pole. getting more RX on 5/8 wave into 4:1 UNUN over 1/2 wave into 49:1 UNUN . Turns out 4:1 UNUN has less loss than 49:1 UNUN. I watched your video on 5/8 wave and did same modeling . MY TX was the same on FT8 . but my RX was like 3BD better and better signal to noise as well. Also QRO like 1KW the 4:1 UNUN runes coller . using thermal imaging camera. Learning the whole antenna system counts. The UNUN or matching network is a big part . along with coax. Callum did a great job on antenna modeling . Still not killing the 1/2 wave with 5/8 . That video right on. Love your video's their a big help with my antenna experiments. love learning things ! Cheers from NY
The old "102-inch" CB whip. I bought a bunch when Radio Shack (Canada) had them on clearance. Also a bunch of assorted mounts and large springs. Slight trim for 10m, or use the hardware for other projects. 73 & Cheers.
You don't *really* need a choke at the feed point. 99.99% of 10m and 11m mobile whip installations do not include that feature. The magnetic mount is supposed to provide enough capacitive coupling through the ultra-thin layer of vehicle paint to provide the counterpoise ("ground") path. If you find RF getting back into the vehicle on the outside of the coax, then worry about it. YMMV.
Tim: I built a drive-on mast support for my various field masts & antennas. I have 20 feet of military surplus aluminum mast the breaks down in 5 foot sections. Much larger in diameter tham the 10 meter fiberglass mast. To accomodate both, my support base is 3/4 inch exterior plywood and the mast drops into a 4 inch PVC pipe base, all home improvement store parts. I would like t send your post a photo, but not sure how I can do that... 73, De WB2VUO, Keith in Amherst, NY
In my case… 50 hr working week. Busy family life. The iPhone in the car is the way I film in between work commitments and family stuff. Quick to set up.. and can edit using the phone itself. 73
Hello Tim, I have a little tarheel on the car and it seems to work fairly well with the standard whip but I made myself a slightly longer whip as per the length given in the user manual and I do notice an improvement in comparative recieved signal strength from stations. I purchased mine from moonraker some years ago but as you say you just cannot purchase one in the UK at the present time. Hopefully uk suppliers will consider importing them again, enjoyed the video, many thanks, Mark, g1mkp
What model of Maine Mast is that exactly? I'm interested in getting one for my DX Commander Expedition. When I go to the FB page I'm unsure which one would work
I quite fancied one of these myself Tim but in the end it was easier to buy the ATAS, still haven’t had chance to try it but the build looks good. Thanks for the video.
Make the 15m element a little longer and attach it to the coil (do not yet add the top wire). Trim that wire to get a good tune on 15. Then add the top wire (again a little longer) and trim (carefully) until 20m comes into a good match. The 15m element shouldn’t be affected by the top wire being trimmed. 73
@@timg5tm941 Hi Tim, tuned the antenne according to your guidelines (longer a piece and coil) tuned beautifully in the 15m band, but after dolling 45cm on the gore, both bands moved to the mountain by about 3mhz. I don't know what I'm doing wrong?
Of all the various mobile antennas I’ve used, the old W6AM screwdriver was hands down the best performing, but tedious to tune. At 10M, it performed about the same as a Hamstik, but at 40M it was much better. Note that the capacitive ground may work for 20M on up, but on 40M and 80M, you’ll want a hard wired ground.
People who have them, love them. They are significantly more expensive than the Yaesu ATAS-120A but, for those who operate 40m and 80m swear by them. I’m never mobile when 40m is open so I’m content with my ATAS (76/100 to Mobile DXCC). I do wish the ATAS was more efficient but it’s fine. Very happy to see you had some time with the “Li’l Tarheel”. MFJ makes a programmable tuner for the TH that would let you set up to 8 or 10 buttons set for any frequency. That would really speed up band changes. 73 Tim!
Looks like you have lost some weight Timothy. I bought a Little Tarheel II about 15 years ago while on holiday in the USA. I have been using it ever since - great antenna, built like a tank. I also use an extended whip when on 40/30/20/17, it improves signals dramatically on these bands. But use the supplied shorter whip on 15/10/12/6. With the longer whip it is too long to operate on the higher bands. Sayonara
@@timg5tm941 Actually I was talking about for on the move but I’ve noticed a lot of guys do static mobile and that’s cool too. Jack / KF5SGC / Richardson Texas USA
@@timg5tm941 when parking, a 5meter long mast for a 1/4 wave vertial for 14MHz would fit to a car without a problem, even a 10m glasfiber telescopic mast for 7MHz.
@@timg5tm941 Well, It does work (while stationary) to pop a telescopic 1/4 wave 17' antenna on top of my tarheel 200HP, but I have not tried it in the little tarheel . Of course the telescopic has to be slightly shorter than full length for 20M when on the big tarheel, but it works great with very little coil showing for 40M and 80 meters is very effective too. I have yet to try to get 160M on that set up but that might be something for later this coming winter. If you are going to operate while in motion, of course, you will want to use a shorter wire. I have installed a bayonet type of connection, and can remove and replace the whip with just a downward tug and 1/4 of a turn and it pops loose. So its easy to go from the LONG whip when parked, to either the 6 ft or the 56 inch whip if you are going to be bashing into tree limbs. When talking about antennas, bigger is better. If you think of it as comparing a 2M short "rubber" antenna to a 2M 5/8's wave mobile antenna on a car, you see what I mean. Even the little tarheel, while having good Efficiency is not as good as the bigger tarheel antenna. Size matters when it comes to antennas so put up the biggest you can tote around! 73
Nice video Tim! Very practical and useful with some practice in winter, cold time for mobile!!! Check the "masterpiece" remotely coil by Frank, DL6FH which I discover by coincidence and use already long time. Stay well & 73, S51X
