[SMCARA] Suggestions

[Clarke, Tom AIR4.0P NATOPS]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the greatest hobby around!

LDG tuner - Great choice.
30 Amp PS - Also good. Nice to have a bit of a cushion over the nominal 20 amps needed by the rig. I have had good luck with Samlex, but plenty of others are good. 
Antenna - Tons of choices.  Since you will have a tuner, go for a standard 75 meter dipole fed with 450 ladder line.  That will tune almost everywhere. The G5RV and ZS6BKW are good choices also, but may need a bit of pruning depending on your installation ( height of antenna, flat top or inv vee, nearby objects, etc.).

In either case, I would recommend a common mode choke at the feedpoint (bottom of 450 line).  A bunch of ferrite bead or a commercial "isolator" will do it. Actually the easiest thing is to make an "ugly balun" (OK, technically not a "balun" but an "UnUn"!) and use that.  Just roll up 6 or 8 turns of coax ( in a solenoid, not scramble wound) feedline at the feed point.  You can use a piece of PVC pipe(3-6 inch diam not critical) as the former.

Hit "Transmit"
Work DX
Have Fun!

73 Tom/W4OKW

-----Original Message-----
From: SMCARA [mailto:smcara-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Dave Q
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 9:26 PM
To: smcara at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [SMCARA] Suggestions

I just got my General ticket last Saturday and today I received a FT-857D I plan to use as a base station for now.
I want to get on the air as soon as possible so I'd like to get some suggestions to that end.
Off the bat I plan on ordering a tuner, power supply and some sort a fast antenna setup.

Future plans are to have both a vertical and dipole.  I am surrounded by trees and scoped some out today.
Have several that are about 160' apart and can get a wire about 60' high between them.  Plan to string that up in the fall.

Suggestions appreciated for:

tuner  - looking at a LDG AT-200 Pro-II
power supply  -  30 amp?
antenna I can get up in a hurry and cover several bands

Budget? Yes, but don't want to buy equipment just to replace it soon because it isn't quality or won't meet my needs.

73 and thanks in advance.

Dave - W3DLQ
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