[NLRS] 432.110 Monday net + antenna info

[Steve Gross-N4PZ]

Happy Sunday Gents

Spring is here so all those antenna projects that never got done last fall, there are no more excuses.


The net begins as usual at 8 PM CST with me looking SW then S, SE, E, etc ending up looking SW at about 9 PM CST.

Should you miss your turn alert me on the on4kst chat site 144/432 Region 2.  I'll pick you up after the net.

I have a new beacon antenna which I am trying. It's an Alford Slot scaled down from a horizontally polarized antenna for 2304 Mhz.

The one on my beacon now is a 4" diameter tube about 48 inches long positioned vertically. Yes it's horizontally polarized although it seems strange. According to the article in an RSGB Microwave book it has 6.4 dbi (isotropic radiator) gain or about 4 dbd over a dipole. Please listen for it from 6 AM to 6:30 PM CST on 432.320. So far W8SOL en71, KG0SJ en22, N9EM en53, & KU8Y en61 all hear it well. It replaces my pair of big wheels. It's made of 1/4" hardware cloth (screening). Galvanized steel screening. Yes I know silver plating is better. LOL

A 2nd one made of an aluminum pipe instead of screening is under construction. They take a bit of tweaking but are pretty simple to build if you want an Omni horizontally polarized cheap antenna for a beacon.

73

Steve N4PZ