Years ago I went to the Gettysburg civil war memorial park. It was impressive to see all the monuments and to consider the history. But the one stand-out thing I recall was the Alabama monument, which I must say, had the most buxom woman carved in stone. Right there I thought, well, Alabama must be a great place, and they sure have some exceedingly fine looking women. I still think it must be true, even though I have never been there. Best wishes from actual upstate NY, the red area. Be good. God bless!
Hah! Great story about the AL monument. You should visit AL some time. I think it’s one of the most underrated (and misjudged) states. I’ve lived here since 2002 and plan to stay. Thanks John and 73!
A slingshot with a zebco 202 attached and a large lug nut and I can put a a line over 80’ trees, and right thru forks in branches. The lug nut falls to the ground, remove the lug nut and attach your pull up string and pull it thru. Makes pullin antennas into trees so easy.
Wow, that’s quite impressive! I could see doing this for my home station antennas. Highest point of my inverted V is about 45 feet right now. 80ft would be awesome!
Boy a lot of Double contacts, hard to separate at times, I think you sent more question marks on this activation than ever before. You did a great job, I had a hard time. 73 KV5P
thank you! it’s tough when there are multiple strong signals at once like that. i just have to listen for any character i can catch in between. it was nice to hear the band in good shape this morning though with so many strong signals booming in! 73 dit dit
I really like my TalentCell! I use the 12V, 3Ah with my TR-25, using 3 watts. Fantastic battery. I have gone three hours, and still had tons of power remaining.
i like it too! one thing i’ve been surprised by is that i can charge the GoPro camera off of the USB port while operating a radio off of the 12V plug and it doesn’t have any RFI noise issues. and dang they’re cheap!
I have an Anker 555, 1024 WH battery power station, but I'm into the RC drone stuff too. Carrying it to a park bench is fine. I wouldn't want to hike with that thing though. 73
very nice! that would be handy. i always keep a little battery brick like the Talentcell in this with me and use it to charge my phone every day, plus it runs any of my QRP radios for several hours. Handy little things!
Great stuff Aaron. Thanks for the vid! I'd like to do one too. It really helps seeing all the kits and ideas. Keep them coming, hope to CU in the Log soon. DE W4EMB, Ed in TN.
Thanks for all the info Aaron. When you talk about keeping the radial(s) off the ground, do you mean that for the full length of the radial? It doesn't look like your table is long enough for that. :) Do you prop up the end with another pole or something? 2nd Q... Have you found that the length of the feedline matters? I use a Wolf River Coils vertical and it seems to be sensitive to feedline length, esp for 30m.
Thanks for watching! I do keep the counterpoise wire off of the ground. I keep things simple though and don’t bring any special equipment to do it. I normally tie the end of the wire (the wire itself, no insulator/rope) to a bush or tree branch or anything nearby and convenient. Or sometimes i’ll find a stick or a rock on the ground and tie it to that. it’s okay for it to slant down from the antenna to the ground at the end, just doesn’t need to sag and touch the ground in the middle. For the coax, i have seen that if the radials are not tuned and balancing the antenna, it will use the shield of the coax as a counterpoise. That’s not always a bad thing, especially at QRP power. At higher power, you would want a 1:1 choke at the radio. BUT if the counterpoise wire is 1/4 wavelength and off of the ground, the coax length won’t matter. :) hope that helps! 73 dit dit
@@w4arb First, CONGRATS on the Kilo. You've put in a lot of work for that. Many thanks on your antenna experience! Experience always counts as much or more than theory. Which leaves me wondering what to do with the 6 radials on my WRC vertical which I like to use on 40m, 30m and 20m.
Thank you! It took several months but cool award to get! As far as the WRC, I wouldn’t say I’m against using ground radials, I use 4 ground radials with my Chelegance MC-750 17 ft vertical. That’s a 17’ antenna, so pretty efficient. It can afford a little ground loss. But if I am using a compromise antenna like the Gabil with is 8’ with a coil, I like to use an elevated counterpoise to keep from having too much ground loss. Give it a try both ways and see what works better for your antenna! I haven’t used a WRC personally, but it’s pretty similar. 73! dit dit
Aaron, Great Video! I was particularly interested in the Grabil antenna system you used… I love QRP… and I own a number of low powered rigs. My favorite being the Elecraft KX2. And, I’m a cult follower of the QRP Labs radios… I own three QC X Mini’s, all in kits, 20, 30 & 40 meter bands, both the Hi & Lo Bander QDX transceivers, This morning I just ordered the new QMX multiband, CW/Digi rig… and I also own a Weber 20/40m Mountain Topp’r, with K6ARK mods… a CapKey. I agree with your comments on using an elevated radial VS a counterpoise for a vertical. One of my favorite is a resonant 20m wire, vertical, with a 17’ elevated radial, and 1:1 choke balun. Thats paired with the QCX Mini 20m…. The BamaKey TP-iii is also in my list of gear… the N0SA SP-4 is a nice paddle too… Thanks for the video. I’ll check out the Grabil antenna. de W7UDT
Thank you! The Gabil antenna is great. I’ve probably logged close to 1000 contacts with it so far and it performs quite well on 40-10m. The raised radial is definitely the key! Very nice on the 1/4 wave wire vertical with raised radials. That’s a great performer right there! I’ve done that with a 17ft telescoping whip and 4 1/4 wave radials for 20m and mount it about 5 feet off of the ground. It really gets out. I haven’t tried the QRP labs rigs yet, but I’ve had my eye on the QCX mini for a while and I just looked up the QMX…now that may be something I buy! I also just got a Mountain Topper MTR4Bv2 from their last new batch. I’m planning to put it on the air for the first time tomorrow morning! The KX2 is an amazing radio. It’s my favorite radio all around, especially with the internal battery and buttery smooth QSK. lovely radio. oh and keys are an addiction..i’m always looking for new CW keys. hah. 72 and catch you on the air! de W4ARB dit dit
hahah this made me chuckle. i do blame Thomas for introducing me to Tom Bihn. you notice i didn’t spend much time sharing my shame of how much i spent on the pack itself. no regrets though, i tend to keep my things for a long time until i wear holes in them.
Hey Aaron, Making an Elmer out of you. Ha! Q) After sending BK, why does the responder (A or H) usually begin with BK instead of a RR or something? Do you know? Small, but curious. Thx.
Hah I’m happy to help any way I can! Good question! BK is used as “break” as a way to pass back and forth in the QSO. The other way to interpret it is to say “back to you” which is the way I use it. I only use it at the end of a transmission, but a lot of folks use it to begin and end. Just different styles, I reckon!
That was the band dashboard on my website. Basically just shows in a mobile friendly layout the things I want to look at while activating. Feel free to use it! link: w4arb.com/hamdashboard
