Might be worth it to add a one foot 3/8-24 threaded rod and a coupling to the kit. You could put it between the sporty 40 and the 17ft whip to give it extra length. Could probably put it below the coil as well.
Yay another Ham radio video with the poetic description by Michael of your historical landscapes. With bonus Ms. KB9VBR!!!!!!!! Looking forward to the video!!! Love my Wolf River Coil with the FT-891! My fourth 10 meter contact {within the allowable band range} with the whip and 6 radials on my Technician's was Canada! Great production value as always with the video editing and footage!!!!
Hi Mr. Michael, thank you again for a lovely POTA weekend in a beautiful park! Aside from showing us the Sporty 40, I would like to compliment your wife on her cooking skills and on her very nice choice of colors for her weaving. Along with being a very new Ham, I am also a spinner, dyer, knitter, and (neophyte) weaver. Really enjoy the videos, and thanks for sharing! :-)
Oooo. Spinning and dying are areas I keep looking at to try more of in the future. So much fun. As for the cooking- I am definitely the sous chef. Michael is an amazing cook - especially at camp. KC9BME
Your videos are thoroughly enjoyable as well as educational. I just love seeing you and your wife doing your own things but being together. A big thank you from your friend in Maine, K1NEO.
Everytime I watch your YT clips from your outdoors trip/activation, the first thing I do is click on the LIKE button! And then I watch it, as I know right from the start, that it will be some good stuff! Thank you for sharing!
Looks like a fine weekend for an activation! I saw your spot on the POTA app today, Nov 16, and was super excited to hear what I thought was you on the spotted frequency. Sadly, it was a station in TX that was on the same frequency. However, you may recall that last December you did a video based on my question on a live video about attic antennas. As of last week, my EFRW is installed in the attic and working well! Today, over 20 contacts, some POTA hunted stations, west to BC and all the way east to the Canary Islands and south to MS in the US. Thanks for the attic advice!
Evidently that Texas station popped up next to me as I was getting ready to wind down. I could hear noise off to the side, but I didn't attempt moving as I was going to finish soon.
Those international broadcasters roll into the 40m band just like clockwork and make the upper end unusable. It seems to be worse in the winter as the days get shorter.
I like your rhythm in making the qso's .. Everything is there call signs, report, cordial and efficient. I'm still trying to dial in my dialogue may have to steal a bit of your appoch.
The best way to manage the pile up is consistency. I’ll dial up or down the banter depending on how busy it is. I try to be intentional with everything I say and do during the activation to keep things moving.
It's nice and smooth and personable which I try to do on the air as well, we are after all speaking to other human beings even for a very short time. Left a tip. Keep up the good work.
Very nice activation, Michael! You should put your recipes from your videos on your site (probably too long of YT description field), if you haven't already. Or a link to a site that they might be on. 73! Jeff K3JRZ
I've got a couple of recipe links in the video description. I'm also coming out with a cookbook this winter with a collection of my favorite camping recipes.
Hi Michael, really enjoyed watching you both enjoy the weekend, just beautiful scenery and great radio, thank you so much for your time, best wishes to you both, zl3xdj.
The scones looked yummy! The note about the resonance is quite important. We all tend to worry about the SWR by itself. Unfortunately, I don't think I've been good enough for Santa to bring me a Rig Expert. U-rah-rah
Agreed. looking at SWR only, you miss the bigger picture. That's why I don't sweat it if I can't get SWR down below 1.7:1 with these vertical antennas.
Have you thought about elevating the sporty 40 on a mast and using a couple of tuned radials? I use a buddipole tripod and mast with good results. Am going to add length to my 17ft whip using buddipole accessory arm, I have both 11 and 22 inch versions. I really enjoy your videos, keep up the good work. 73 de KW7WP
Great video Michael. I’m curious what that first dish was? It looked like some kind of chocolate chip bread with cheese in it. I know how much you Wisconsonians love your cheese 😄. Thanks for putting this together. 73, KD9PWI.
Those are chocolate chip scones. The tops got a little brown, but still very tasty. the recipe link is in the video description. I'll be coming out with a cookbook this winter with more of my camping recipes.
Hey Michael. I got my Sporty Forty as soon as they became available for sale on their website. I do not have the RU-vid channel you do, but I did some tests with my Sporty Forty and I was able to get a near 1:1 SWR on 40 meters with mine and put them on my little RU-vid channel. I was also using the MFJ 1979 17ft. whip. I found that using three 32 ft. ground radials was almost ideal. Try changing those 16 ft. ones into 3 or 4 32 footers and I'm thinking you'll see a better result. Very good video as always. Thanks for the great job you always do. 73 de KN3A.
In my testing, I have found that you SWR can be vary depending on coax length and the number and length of ground radials. But in dropping my SWR, my reactance goes up, so I don't know if I take a performance hit or not. For that reason I really don't sweat it if I can't get SWR below 1.7:1. I'll check out your channel and look at your results.
I ran into the same issue with the MFJ-1979 17' whip being too short with the use of my WRC "shorty forty". The MFJ whip is also 11" short like the Chameleon whip in comparison to the WRC OEM 17' whip, this put the resonance point just above the 40m band. With a tuner I could use it on 40m, but i felt that lengthening the whip to bring the resonance down would be a better option and not require a runer. My solution was to order a 3/8-24 whip extension off Amazon. There are several different sizes available on Amazon 12", 18" and 24" extensions. I purchased the 12" size that came with a coupling nut and it worked great to lower the resonance point on 40 meters to cover the 40m voice band. I used 50 ft of RG-8x coax with the 3 - 33 ft radials. I also had good results using 6 - 16.5 ft radials. SWR ranged from 1.5 to 1.7 on 40M. I love your video, very informative and very enjoyable to watch!
I think I'm going to keep an extension rod in my antenna bag for the same reasons. Interestingly, I've found that coax length and radials can affect the SWR a bit on the Sporty Forty, In testing I was able to reduce SWR by shortening the coax to 25 feet or using less radials. I didn't do an on-air test since it was just in my backyard, so I'm not sure if doing that would affect performance.
One more turn on that "shorty 40" coil would have given users a little wiggle room with the various telescopic whips that we're all using. 😏 With the whip tuned for resonance, sometimes a radial or feedline cable adjustment can help bring that impedence up a little closer to 50 ohms. I usually carry a couple short coax cables (10 - 15 ft.) and a few clip-on ferrite chokes. Black magic 🎩 😁 KZ9V
Neat coil ! I do prefer the adjustable ones, but for quick up and down, this one would be hard to beat. Something I've noticed. I'm in S E Idaho. I've noticed that in the day time, I get almost zero signals from the mid west and south on 40 meters. Lots of contacts on 20 meters. Good contacts on 17 meters also. From the video, it appears that the skip is short on 40 meters. It was longer on 17 meters. I have a 7300 and a full size multi band vertical. Is it just my station and type of antenna or are others seeing the same thing. It's frustrating as I get the majority of my POTA contacts from the mid west and south. Having a vertical, I expect my contacts not to be local. Your thoughts on this. Thanks Michael !
I also like the ability to tweak things with the adjustable coil, but I can see this as being a great winter antenna as if I have one less thing to worry about in setup, that means I have less time that I need to be out in the cold fiddling with things. As for 40 meters, I find it tough to make contact further west during the day. Usually my limit is Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. But I do get Utah, Idaho, and Washington during late shift activations. Last summer I worked the same station on both 20m and 40m during a late shift. His 40m contact actually sounded better later in the evening than the 20m one early on.
@@KB9VBRAntennas I've also found that 40 meters comes in later in the afternoon to evening to the west. I think it's great that you worked both 40 and 17 meters. Gives us out west people a chance to make a contact with you and others who are in the mid west and south during the day. What type of day time coverage are you getting with 20 meters from your area ? Daytime activators in the mid west and south, work 17 and 20 meters during the day in addition to 40. Twenty meters is getting west of the Rockies in the day time.
Unrelated, but this reminds me of that ambulance show towards the end. Anyway I was wondering if most people like you on RU-vid can be trusted and I why we can trust those numbers. My current condition prevents me from doing what you’ve set out to do so I’m going to keep living through you each day and send you some more gear if god wills it. It’s not that I don’t trust you at all! Also, these locations you go to hopefully have been cleared
Michael, why don't you use your autonotch filter to block the jammers? It saves your ears and your frustration. I use mine on nearly every activation. 73 de VE3GKT
I use the notch all the time, it's one of my front buttons on the FT-891. The intentional interference on 17m that day could not be notched out, though. It was broad band noise that blocked out everything.
I don't think that question can be answered. All the modern 100 watt transceivers do an excellent job with CW and have the same basic features and capabilities. The key difference is their ergonomics; where the buttons are placed and how the features are activated. That's a subjective decision and not based on objective performance.
I'm using 8 16 foot radials. They are in two bundles of four with a large spring clip on the end. Here's a video I did last summer on my radial network: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1hZO-UYujm0.html
@@KB9VBRAntennas thanks Mike I’ve watched that video already. The reason I ask is because I’ve been using 8 16’ 6” radials trying 2 coil setups (Super Antenna & BuddiCoil) both with appx 2 11” shafts below the coil and I can’t get the SWR below 2.5-3.0:1 anywhere on or near the 40m band. Using the same stainless steel jaw mount you are, Chameleon 17’ SS whip and an 18” SS tent stake as far into the ground as I can. This is in average ground, not particularly dry. I added 4 more (12 total) 16’ 6” wires and it made very little change. I’m stumped & getting pretty frustrated. The next thing I was gonna try was cutting them in half. Thanks for all your help.
I wonder if the issue isn't so much the radials but the coax? Have you tried different coax or a different length of coax? Are you using an RF choke on your coax? I've found that when using a 25 foot piece of RG-8x I sometimes have similar SWR issues, and adding another 25 feet fixes it.
@@KB9VBRAntennas I was using 50’ of RG8X coax, no RF choke. Also tried 25’ of RG-316 with a built in choke. Neither of these coax cables create issues on 20-10m. I did fold all of the radials in half and it brought the SWR down slightly. I removed 8 of the radials, still folded in half (so basically 33’ total) and was able to obtain an SWR of 1.4:1 across the entire General voice portion of 40m. I’m stumped to say the least.
The battery just supplies power for the radio. The logging computer runs off the battery and I use a 500wh power station to keep it charged. I keep my transmit power at 50 watts for efficiency. I try to keep an eye on power consumption with a power meter, for that weekend I was on the air for combined 2 1/2 hours and consumed approximately 8 amp-hours of power. That means the 20 ah battery should give me about 5-6 hours of total run time if I take it down to depletion.
@@KB9VBRAntennas Thanks, it is reassuring, I have an outstanding order for a SB1000, the 17’ telescopic and a tripod mount. Looking forward to getting them.
Larry and Gary often will shut down the store if they are traveling to a show or have a family issue to deal with. Then they don’t end up with a big backlog of orders.
It probably would. I've got a bunch of scrap copper available to me from making antennas, so when one gets beat up, I just throw it back in the scrap bucket and grab another.
