[AK-VHF] Checking In

[Brandon Clark]

That's good to hear about the shack reorganization. It seems like no 
matter how many times we work on the radio station it always needs to be 
improved again after a few years.

Been making progress on planning the install, and have pinned down some 
specifics. From the operating station up to the roof line it is a 35' 
run, including a food or two for wiggle room. I am thinking to put the 6 
M dipole on it's own feed line, using LMR-240. That gives me about 0.7 
dB loss for the run.

For 2 M,1.25 M, and 70 cm I'm still playing with different ideas though. 
The band that will suffer the greatest feed line loss is 70 cm. For a 
35' run I lose 2 dB with LMR-240, 1.1 dB with LMR-400, and 0.7 dB with 
LMR-600.What I'm considering is using a triplexer at base of the yagi 
stack and running a single LMR-600 feed line, rather than separate lines 
for each.

The other wrinkle is that the 35' length does NOT include the distance 
from the base of the tripod to the yagis themselves. That will probably 
be another five to eight feet or so to allow for rotation. The 
individual hookups will likely all be LMR-240 to maintain flexibility. 
That ten foot run adds to the loss though. Another option is LMR-400 UF 
(ultra-flex), which I use for my rover operations. Same low loss as 
LMR-400 but much more flexible, albeit with a less durable jacket material.

Brandon


On 4/18/20 11:10 PM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> Brandon,
>
> Thanks for the update.  New location with antennas on roof of 
> two-story bldg should work well.  Good chance the Diamond dual-band 
> vertical will have sufficient gain with 100w to work down here in the 
> Kenai area.  The yagis will work even better. The 6m dipole is  not 
> very directional so will probably not need rotation and work me when I 
> have my dual-seven element 6m yagis functional.  It will work when 6m 
> opens for sporatic-E or Aurora.
>
> I guess with an antenna tuner the off-center fed dipole should work 
> (never used one; always just cut standard dipoles).
>
> GL with the CW study/practise and pending license upgrade!
>
> I am in midst of rearranging my ham shack.  Redesigned my radio 
> shelving and move stuff around for shorter cable runs.  Now in the 
> process of setting equipment back up and running wiring/cables. Gonna 
> take a few days for that.
>
> Lots of projects lined up when ground clears of snow.
>
> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>
> At 02:15 PM 4/16/2020, Brandon Clark wrote:
>> Hello group,
>>
>> It's been pretty quiet lately with the quasi-lockdown, but I thought I
>> would send out a CQ and see how everyone is doing. I hope you are all
>> weathering the "new normal" and staying healthy.
>>
>> On my end it's been pretty busy for a "lockdown". I've moved to a 
>> 2-story
>> place in Anchorage by Arctic and 76th. That means antenna plans!
>>
>> I am looking at setting up an omnidirectional vertical for 2 M and 70 
>> cm. I
>> am also going to build a yagi stack on a rotator: vertical beams for 2 M
>> and 70 cm, with a horizontal dipole for 6 M. 220 MHz capability will 
>> come
>> later this year. For HF I'll be setting up an off-center-fed dipole 
>> along
>> the roof line.
>>
>> I also finally set myself to learn CW. Activating for Summits on the Air
>> using FT8 was a success, but it never hurts to have another high 
>> efficiency
>> mode available. I have an app on my phone that provides exercises 
>> based on
>> the Koch method, and am slowly learning. I also picked up a very used 
>> j-38
>> key on eBay for $25. It's ugly, but works. With a little metal polish 
>> and
>> new washers it should be good as new very shortly.
>>
>> What about the group? Any other good ham radio projects happening out 
>> there?
>> 73,
>> Brandon
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>
> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>   http://www.kl7uw.com
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