Thank you for showing the simplicity of the slim-jim antenna! I've been debating between that and the Ed-Fong but the N9TAX is looking pretty good! Thanks again!
use to do this all the time when staying at hotel with office colleagues during working trip which made them hard to get a sleep 😂 bring back memories..
I like your setup very much. I have the same antenna hanging up in my first-floor apartment and am amazed at how well I can get my signal out. Watching your video brought up my old frustrations at rarely getting responses when I put my call sign out there. One ham told me a few years ago that if I wanted a contact, I should just say so. If I just say that I'm "listening", that is all that I'm saying. Now if I'm looking for a contact I say, "This is on repeater just looking for a contact. Is anybody out there? This is on repeater and listening." My response rate went from single digits to around 95%. I think the key things are to say my call sign slow enough for someone to hear, state what repeater I am on (many people are scanning through a number of repeaters when listening), state specifically that I am looking for a contact, and then repeat my callsign and repeater again. It would be interesting to do a comparison video between the two approaches. Thanks for your video. It is encouraging and inspirational to see people trying to activate the airwaves. I would not be a ham today if it were not for people like you putting up videos on RU-vid.
I’m so glad you’re active! That’s great to hear! I had never thought about actually asking for a contact. Guess I’m showing my age. Back in the day “listening” was sort of equivalent to CQ. Thanks for the tip!
In my area (Southern CA), even if you ask for anyone out there, unless you're part of "the circle of regulars", they won't answer too often. In other areas of the country, folks will pick up the call almost every time.
Nice! Love that clip. Works on outside balconies too. I really like to bring an HT on road trips with hotel room stays. Made nice friends and contacts that way! I really like bringing one with APRS.
I've got the same antenna I've made it last year just for experiment as I love making antennas I was surprised with how well it works I've made 4m in slim jim in 450 ladder line works fantastic.
Excellent! I was too lazy to make my own so I got this one from N9TAX on ebay. It’s the second one of his antennas I have. The other one is in my POTA pack.
Just a suggestion there’s probably several local hams monitoring all those repeaters and if they’re like me if they hear you Kerchunk a repeater and then another and then another and then another that may be a problem for those scanning local repeaters ,just a suggestion you might try identifying instead of kerchunking the repeater 73, Have fun
This is KC1QYD, Greetings from Rhode Island I'm guessing you were in the Warwick/Providence area based on the repeaters you were hitting. I am looking at Slim Jims for my portable setup and judging by this test, i think i am going to go for the N9TAX antenna. 73, Thomas
I’d have posted a video with better results. Please be respectful of our time. We only have so many minutes to spend on our video viewing. Make it worth it.
