[SOC] Looking for usleless advise

[Hank Kohl K8DD]

How about you tune it for 3580.
Then short out a a turn or 3, adjusting it until it is resonant on 3800.
Remove the jumper - it should be fine on 3580.
Put the jumper back on - it should be fine on 3800.
Replace the jumper with a small waterproof relay.


At 2/25/02 08:06 AM -0600, Dan W. Dooley wrote:
>Hey, let's face it, if I was looking for sound advice, would I be asking
>THIS list?
>
>I'm only kidding guys.  All in fun.
>
>Here's my dilemma.  I've got a pretty good antenna that does a respectable
>job on the HF bands.  No, not like having big, high up, high gain beams, or
>big exotic phased arrays or something like that, but for a multi-band
>radiator, it works doggone well.  That is my Butternut HF9V vertical
>elevated to 18 ft. at the base with resonant radials for all bands.  I get a
>respectable amount of DX with it and though I may have to work patiently
>through heavy pileups, I generally always get through eventually.  Sometimes
>I get through on the first or second call too.
>
>So....  I guess I should have started that previous paragraph with "my
>setup" or something like that as it didn't touch on the dilemma at all.  Oh
>well.  Here it is.  The antenna is narrow as a toothpick on 80 meters.  No
>surprise there.  It does very well in a very narrow bandwidth of about 50
>KHz.  That limits me to choosing one part of the band and pretty much
>staying there.  To change to a different part requires physically
>lengthening or shortening a big coil on the antenna.  That's not easy to do
>as I have to lower the antenna, and get up on the roof to reach the coil and
>then the correct resonant point is touchy to reach.
>
>I like to work the digital modes on 80 (primarily PSK31) so I have it tuned
>for 3580.  Running 2 watts, I can cover pretty much all of the North
>American continent on this band.  That's great if PSK31 is all I want to do
>on 80.  It's not.  Last night, I see on one of the DX spots that the Cocos
>Isl group is on 3795 (listening just above 3800).  I tune the rig up there
>and I can hear them ok.  That being the case, they should be able to hear
>me.  Problem is, no way was my antenna going to go there.  I even tried
>running it through the Dentron SuperTuner I have here.  The built in tuner
>in the radio (Kenwood TS-2000) wasn't going to handle the task either.
>
>So, methinks another antenna is in order.  Not to replace the Butternut, but
>to suplement it on 80.  And, that's my question.  What?  If I had a couple
>of 75 ft tall trees in the yard and they were far apart, the answer would be
>simple.  My tallest trees are less than 35 ft high.  I could build some sort
>of loop and run it around the eves of the house.  It would be pretty long,
>that's for sure, but it wouldn't be very high.  The city limits my over all
>antenna height to 35 ft. so that rules out a lot of possibilities.
>
>So back to the loop.  I suspect that I could get it to tune the entire band
>with the tuner, especially if I fed it with open wire or at least twin lead.
>But, at the height, what kind of range could I expect?  Would I simply be
>burning holes in the clouds?
>
>Looking for ideas, folks.
>
>Dan W. Dooley  WB5TKA  Bedford, Texas
>     e-mail to: dandooley@pipeline.com
>     Web site: http://www.qsl.net/wb9tka
>May Goddes love blest ye alle
>"Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning."
>
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*/     Hank Kohl  K8DD      k8dd@arrl.net
*/     ARRL TS              http://www.qsl.net/k8dd
*/     MI-QRP - Vice Pres.  QRP-ARCI - Director
*/
If God intended you to be on single sideband, he would have given you only 
one nostril.
- Steve, K2PTS