[SixClub] Any one hear any Aurora yet?
Roger (K8RI)
50MHz at rogerhalstead.com
Fri Aug 6 14:57:34 EDT 2010
On 8/6/2010 7:50 AM, Gary - N3JPU wrote:
> For me I felt it was important to save .75dB.
For me with 200 feet to the pigtails, minus the jumpers from the six
pack to the bulkhead connectors at the bottom of the tower, and from the
patch panels to the rigs I would have had about about 180' for each of
(160, 80-10, 6, 2, and 440) or 5 runs. I've since simplified the system
with the removal of the 144 and 440 arrays from the 45G and can get by
with 3 runs of Heliax or LMR-600 from each station with 2 of them to the
six pack. The third is for the 144/440 vertical side mounted at 50
feet. The TH-5 has also been removed and replaced with a 3L 40
(40M3-125). I'm mounting a Force 12 C-19 XR at 50 feet with (hopefully)
a WARC7 at 60' at the West end of the shop. That will be a run from
the house of about 260 feet to the pigtails.To add that to the six pack
would take an additional 80 feet of buried conduit from the 45G to the
25G, but would actually simplify the antenna arrangements. I could
simply run the coax from the 6 pack through the conduit to the shop and
through the metal conduit inside the shop which goes to the base of the
25G as the conduit is in place and the space is available for an LMR600
or 7/8" Heliax. OTOH that makes the grounding much more complex and
cross talk much more likely.
For 6 meters which is the important one here, the 7L C3i (which is a
great antenna except for the phasing harness/loop) the length of coax is
going to remain the same so I'd have roughly 1 db gain with 1/2" heliax,
but using LMR600 I have virtually the same loss and it's much easier to
work with as well as being a much more robust cable for about the same
as the best price I've found for Heliax (1/2" or 7/8") which was on the
link Mike sent to me.
Unfortunately as I've said before, I'm retired, on a pension, and with
the market convulsions I'm not quite ready to purchase between 1000 and
2000 feet of coax and fittings even at $1.00 a foot including fittings.
I'm even welding up my own tower bases and gin poles.
> Additionally I have found
> on several occasion new LDF4 for $.75 foot and found cases of new
> Andrews N's for $5 each. My last buy was less than 2 years ago when I
> moved to this new QTH. I have N connectors on every antenna (6M, 3L
> SteppIR yagi and even my 160M antenna), personal preference.
>
>
I use all crimp connectors with one exception, although I do solder the
center pin. I did have all N connectors in the system, but had too many
failures on 160 and 75 due to high SWR at the band edges and the
associated high voltages when running the legal limit, and lightning has
taken out a number of them. Davis Electric (makers of Davis BuryFlex
which I now use for pigtails) located UHF "clamp" connectors to fit the
LMR-600 for around $13 each IIRC. Using a mill I bore out the inside
flange which does not show a difference in impedance, but does greatly
increase the break down voltage and have been using those.
I believe in large coax for VHF and UHF due to loss characteristics, but
for six meters the average installation of less than 100 feet would do
well with virtually any of the RG8 types. I also use the large coax on
160 due to less IR losses which on that band are far more than the
regular losses.
> I could of made the gain up with the antenna, went back to a Directive
> System 5L from a F12 9L. The 9L played very well but required a lot of
> turning the beam since the F/B was so goo and beamwidth was narrow.
I really like the directivity and gain with the great F/B, but maybe
that's at least partly due to location being in Michigan. With good band
openings, be they skip or AU I generally have a lot of stations audible
off the back.
> Plus
> I wanted to be able to put up the SteppIR I sold the 9L to Joey.
>
>
And...because of my age and the requirement to now get a tower climber
when needed with guyed towers instead of crankups I chose to stay away
from the SteppIR (which is a great antenna BTW) due to reported
maintenance. If I had a good, crank-up I would have gone with the
Monster SteppIR in a minute although I'd still stay with the 7L C3i for
six. I do need to replace the phasing loop or harness with larger
coax. I heard it referred to as a fuseable link when running the legal
limit.
> Antenna gain makes all the difference in the world, back in the early
> 2000's I ran only 100W and made WAS in 3 years (my initial VUCC
> submission coincided with my WAS submission),
That was when you could work the world with a piece of wire. I worked a
guy testing his rig on the bench down in Central America. All he had for
an antenna was a short piece of wire laying on the work bench and stuck
in the coax connector. I don't know which of us was more surprised. <:-))
> but my antenna was a stack
> of DS 5L's. I really liked that setup but no longer have the mast space
> to accommodate.
Being on a 200 X 200 lot in a rural subdivision severely crimps my
antennas for the low bands and tower height for VHF and up.
Although Michigan is not listed high in lightning activity we are
apparently second in strikes and my location was way above average with
3 verified strikes a year for a while. So I have a small fortune in the
ground system.
The location is fairly low noise with a couple of intermittent
exceptions. One is an electric fence of which they are happy to be
called so the cattle don't get out. The other is the wide band noise
that starts some where above 40 and extends above six. At least it's
intermittent, but that's the one that hides every time I try to find it.
> May have to reconsider, I need 5 more for DXCC on 6 so
> am getting hungry.
>
>
The only award I've ever received was RCC and that was as a Novice on CW
some 50 years ago. I've never even tried for WAS or WAC although back
in the 70's we had all continents in a single QSO. A bunch of us had
been talking for a while on 10 meters when some one asked where each of
us was located. IT turned out that we had all continents represented, so
we all exchanged calls and had WAC is less than a minute. The only
continent I lack on six is Oceana and I should have that.
> BTW, the SteppIR 3L on 6M is a poor performer compared to the dedicated 5L.
>
>
I guess that should come as no surprise with the wide spacing and only
3L although it should be adequate except for weak signal work.
My biggest drawback at present (besides lack of ambition) is the only
rig in my den is the 144/440 duoband Kenwood TM-D710 FM. (I have to go
to the shop to work HF and six) I've been trying to get new carpet in
and the walls painted for nearly a year, but I have too much *stuff* in
here and that's after moving all the station equipment to the shop and
bookcases to the basement. I still have two computers, one book case, a
computer hutch I can't even lift, and the printer stand loaded not only
with a printer, but the cable modem, router, and 8 port switch.
If I can move all of the networking *stuff* (This is a family group) to
the basement, I can temporarily store the Epson R320 as we have a
network printer in my wife's office, and I can get rid of the book case
which would only leave the computers and hutch. I have most of my e-mail
installed on one of the shop computers so I only have to finish that,
then I can remove the computers and the hutch has to be dismantled to
get it out of here.
My wife tells me I suffer from CRS and TMS. CRS = Can't Remember
*stuff* and Too Much *Stuff*
One other problem with the den...It's only 10' X 12' and with the two
computers running let alone the big amp, it gets hot in here.
73
Roger (K8RI)
> Gary Mitchelson
> N3JPU Davidsonville, MD FM18
> http://www.mitchelson.org/
>
> On 8/5/2010 22:46, Roger (K8RI) wrote:
>
>>
>> On 8/5/2010 5:56 PM, Gary - N3JPU wrote:
>>
>>> You are pretty far south for AU (although on strong AU it will go far
>>> south).
>>>
>>> Yes I have used a LNA Technology GasFET pre-amp on 6M, did not really
>>> help much. When I did WSJT EME it did not help, worked stations the
>>> same, pre-amp or no pre-amp.
>>>
>>> I use LDF-4 Heliax, saves a lot of loss over stuff like LMR-400.
>>>
>> 0.463 db/100' while LMR-400 is 0.9 That is about 0.5 db difference for a
>> 100 feet. To me that is not a lot of loss saved. It's also a figure that
>> is unnoticeable whether receiving or transmitting. You can't tell it on
>> receive and the guy on the other end can not detect the difference.
>> Add to that I have found 1/2" Heliax to be fragile and easily kinked.
>> OTOH LMR-400 has a minimum bend radius of one inch, or a repeatable bend
>> radius of 4 inches and it's quite rugged. I had two 100' runs of LDF4
>> with N connectors given to me. I gave away one length and it's unlikely
>> I'll use the other.
>> NOW if I could come up with a couple hundred feed of 7/8" to 1 1/4" with
>> connectors I'd certainly use it. No it's not very flexible, but it's a
>> lot tougher than the 1/2". Unfortunately the last 7/8" run I had was
>> taken out by lightning. It blew a hole in the dielectric about 20' from
>> the antenna making it too short for me to use.
>>
>> In the past I have picked up large coils of 7/8" for the repeater system
>> with connectors...cheap! When I need some it takes a lot of looking and
>> I've still not found any.
>>
>> What I'd really like now are two 90' runs, two 60 foot runs, and three
>> 100 foot runs of 7/8 to 1 1/4" Heliax with connectors, but my hunt has
>> been unsuccessful so far. So I went with LMR-600 which is rugged and
>> cost me $1.29 a foot two years ago.
>>
>> Yes, you are correct in that I do not like 1/2" Heliax. I've had too
>> many mechanical problems with it.
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Roger (K8RI)
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> SixClub mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/sixclub
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:SixClub at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
> SixClub mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/sixclub
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:SixClub at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>
More information about the SixClub
mailing list