[HoustonHam] this is a very elementary question, but

[Chris Boone]

The band has been DEAD lately...even the FM rptr segment is flat (usually
the W1OJ rptr on 29.62 booms in when the band is just the tiniest bit
open!)....

If you have a watt meter inline or if the HTX shows good output on a carrier
mode (AM, FM) then the antenna is likely ok...
You can listen in several areas for activity...beacons around 28.080-28.195
(CW), the SSB calling freq of 28.4, the AM segment of 29-29.3 and the FM
subband of 29.4-29.7 (simplex channels 29.5 and 29.6)

I have a HTX10 in the mobile.....was wondering myself if something was wrong
with the rig or antenna..but after checking everything out (and it is all
ok), it MUST be the band is DEAD..........rats!

Chris
WB5ITT

> -----Original Message-----
> From: houstonham-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:houstonham-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of 
> Christopher Mitchell
> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 4:09 PM
> To: houstonham at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [HoustonHam] this is a very elementary question, but
> 
> 
> Hi, folks,
> 
> I'm down in Pasadena with this old Radio Shack gear that a friend of  
> mine bought on a whim years ago.  He hasn't yet gotten his 
> license, so  
> he wanted me to see if it worked.  Well, I have no experience 
> with 10m  
> so I don't know what I should expect, if anything, but given 
> that the  
> ground wave should work about as well as CB I am a little surprised  
> that I don't hear anything but static and a few harmonic 
> tones across  
> the entire band in SSB/AM/FM.
> 
> It is a Radio Shack HTX-10 and he bought it with a RS CB 
> antenna that  
> could supposedly be trimmed down a bit for 10m resonance.   
> http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp? 
> catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=21-972
> 
> Two questions really:
> 
> 1) Having found an antenna length calculator but not coming up with  
> anything that seemed reasonable, what length should this 
> antenna be cut  
> down to?  I do not know what fraction of a wavelength it is 
> attempting  
> to be currently.  The RS site does not have any 
> documentation, but I am  
> going to make a guess this is a very simple calculation.
> 
> 2) Even if the whip is not tuned for 10m transmission, would that  
> preclude ANY reception?  I may be showing my ignorance, but it's not  
> off by *that much*.  I wouldn't expect to have an acceptable 
> SWR as it  
> is, but I did think that maybe I should be able to get some  
> intelligible signals.  (I also thought it was a 10m antenna, 
> though, as  
> did he, until I started investigating.  Remember, I didn't buy this  
> stuff ! :) )
> 
> I'll be getting a Yaesu FT-817 in the mail some time next 
> week and will  
> be able to do some very close definitive TX/RX tests on it, but  
> currently if I could just get pushed in the right direction I'd very  
> much appreciate it.
> 
> Thanks,
> Chris KC5PFI /AG
> 
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